


Battles Forgotten

by whenyouwriteinbed



Series: Recollections [2]
Category: Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal
Genre: Gen, Spoilers for all Persona 5 Royal boss battles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:54:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 24,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24882631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whenyouwriteinbed/pseuds/whenyouwriteinbed
Summary: Spoilers for all of Persona 5 Royal boss fights.Though they were never recorded, these were the battles that defined who the Phantom Thieves of Hearts were. These were the moments where their ideals were tested, and where they had shined.A collection of the boss battles in Persona 5 Royal, told using the rules that I've been hinting at in Recollections.
Series: Recollections [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1795705
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	1. Suguru 'Asmodeus' Kamoshida

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thanks to Dev0ted for beta-ing this, they've kind of become the unofficial beta reader of the writers in the Kasumi discord.  
> Give his fic a read, The Wish for Control, link in the notes down below as thanks

Staring at the crown before them, the Phantom Thieves couldn’t believe it.

After all this effort, it was finally going to end. They were going to have Kamoshida confess with his own mouth what he had done.

“Well, since I’m too small for this, you guys carry it,” Mona said as if he was satisfied with what he was doing, giving Skull a condescending smirk.

Skull, however, was seemingly more impressed with the size of the crown, as was everyone else, along with the effort needed to move the crown.

Giving up with a lack of reaction, the black ‘cat’ took the lead, guiding the rest of the thieves out of the treasury.

Making their way down the stairs, Panther was trying her best as the one in the back from having Joker and Skull fall forward.

“I hope he’s running around somewhere looking for us. Let’s hurry to the Safe Room,” she muttered softly as they passed the throne.

“Go! Go! Let’s go, Kamoshida!!”

As if to mock her, the Thieves paused at the sound of her voice.

Trying to figure out what had happened, the crown suddenly flew out of their hands, with Panther only barely avoiding having her head smashed in by Mona pulling her down.

Turning to face where the crown should’ve landed, they saw it shrink and fly into the hands of the waiting Shadow Kamoshida, as his cat-girl Ann ran up to his side, pressing her chest against his waiting arm.

“So, you waited in ambush, did you?” Skull started, barely keeping himself from spitting on the floor.

“Don’t be stupid, it’s easier to find some dirty rats if you wait near the trap for them,” the Shadow said, smiling as he looked at the cognitive Ann, giving her rear a slight squeeze which let out a moan of enjoyment as the real one cringed in disgust as he tossed crown in his hands.

“Just give it up, your secret is going to be exposed to everyone anyway,” Joker said quietly, fiddling around with his cape as he made sure that his knife and gun were in place, summoning and canceling their summon behind his back under the cover of his cloak.

“What secret?” the Shadow laughed, this time moving his hand up to grope cognitive Ann’s breasts. “I have no secrets, only people who want something from me have them.”

“Those who run this school that want my accomplishments and students that have the drive to be winners, they protect me for mutual profit,” glowered the Shadow.

“Hell, they’d even suck my dick if it meant they would benefit,” he said with a predatory grin, moving his hand beyond the fabric of the cat-girl bikini.

“Too bad that dumbass of a girl jumped. I guess she wasn’t ready to accept my mercy,” the Shadow continued, looking at Panther to see if she would break.

Instead of backing down, she responded with a silent ferocity, ignoring the taunting look and the moaning version of her other-self.

“No, I’m more of a dumbass for not recognizing what you were doing,” she said with a hidden venom in his voice.

“Hell, I’m a dumbass for not realizing just what a piece of shit you are!” she yelled, her whip phasing in and out of existence.

“Stay calm.”

Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Panther looked to her side as Joker stood there, while Shadow Kamoshida started to froth at the mouth.

“PIECE OF SHIT!? Don’t you know how high above you I am as a human!” he shouted, his hand flying out of the bikini and tearing it off.

In a moment of silence, the Thieves' eyes moved towards what should’ve been an exposed breast, Panther subconsciously moving her arms over her chest, only to have a smooth sphere greet them.

“Above?! Someone as high as you claim would never fall to the methods of a demon!!” Skull eventually shouted, snapping out of the surprise first and pointing an accusatory finger at the king.

As if he were processing what was said, the Shadow stayed quiet for a moment before he started to laugh a deep guttural laugh.

“You’re right,” he said, his voice suddenly changing, sounding as if it had gone through some strange filter, making the thieves back up.

“I’m not a human, I ascended humanity long ago,” the Shadow stated, as his body started to pulsate, making the thieves back up further.

Then it burst.

Covering their faces in anticipation of something flying at them, they looked up when nothing had hit them, only to be greeted by a sitting 4-meter-tall humanoid.

“I’m tHE DEmon whO rUles thiS WORLD!!!!” it screeched.

It was naked and thankfully missing a certain something, who had four arms and had a sickly shade of pink skin, with a head that would’ve been proportional on a baby's body instead of an adult body.

Said head had a jagged mouth as if it were a cartoon, with a long, blue tongue coming out of it, as it reached down to its legs.

In front of it was a trophy, easily the size of Joker and Skull together, with ‘Japan National Championship’ written on the plaque it rested on.

In its arms were a fork, a knife, a glass of wine and a baton, which it chose the knife to point at the Thieves.

“aS RULer oF THiS WoRLd, i cAN DO as I PLEase!!”

Then the sound of a gun echoed, hitting the glass and shattering it, with a strange silence in the air.

“Surely, the mighty demon before me can command this humble one to shoot it in the face to prove it’s superiority.”

A screech of outrage came from the demon, as some balls and chains fell from the ceiling, with tiny, similarly naked, ... things, tied to them.

Taking it as the signal that the battle had begun, the Thieves spread out, as Joker calmly stood still, watching the demon with a calm, calculated look.

“KIlL thAt baSTarD!!!”

Pointing at Joker with the broken glass, the ‘things’ turned their attention towards him, summoning small objects into their arms, volleyballs under closer inspection, before flinging them at the still unmoving leader.

There were no cries of panic or ‘move!’ from the rest of the Thieves though, something that the demon would’ve normally taken delight in.

Wondering what was making them so calm, a sudden cry of “Tetrakarn!” came from Joker, wings of twilight sprouting behind him.

Seconds before the balls would’ve hit him, a barrier of some sort seemed to materialize before him, absorbing all the balls and making them disappear.

Before he had time to wonder what had happened, said barrier started to rocket forward, smashing the demon in the face, making him scream in anger.

Satisfied that he now had its attention, Joker started to back up a bit, making sure that the demon’s eyes were on him.

His hateful glare followed, throwing the now broken wine glass at Joker’s feet, thinking that he wouldn’t be able to reflect an attack that missed.

Smiling internally, Joker waited for the stem to hit the floor, before Tetrakarn was cast once more, absorbing all the shards that would’ve hit him and the barrier flew into the face of the demon again.

“Target name identified! Asmodeus!” he called out, prompting nods from the rest of the Thieves.

Perhaps it didn’t matter to outsiders what the name was, but after fighting so many Shadows, the significance of the shout wasn’t lost to the rest of the thieves.

It gave them a name, which in turn, helped guide their weapons and Personas towards their target. In fact, what was obviously amateur movement from the Thieves that could only hit their target half the time at best, would suddenly improve to that of a professional with just a name.

Seemingly outraged beyond compare, the demon, now named as Asmodeus, decided that it would be best to find a new target, one that couldn’t throw everything back at him and eventually settled on targeting Skull.

“DiE!!!” he shrieked, swinging the baton at the blonde man.

Seeing it coming, Skull leapt out of the way, thinking that he had gotten away cleanly only to get knocked off his feet from the impact it made on the ground.

Smiling at the prone position his prey was now in, Skull realized that Asmodeus didn’t mean to hit him with the baton, as the knife started to fly towards him.

Scrambling to get himself back up, Skull panicked slightly as he looked at Joker.

They had practiced many times and by now, he knew that he was out of Joker’s range to cast Tetrakarn on him. Even with the speed Joker was running at him, he knew that he wouldn’t make it.

But.

“Debilitate!”

Hearing the casting of a new spell, the demon turned and looked at Joker, hatred overflowing from his eyes as he looked at the one who was annoying him the most. There were now a pair of arms floating behind Joker, with a trio of spheres forming in them. Stopping his attack on Skull, Asmodeus raised his fork in an attempt to catch the spheres once they left the floating hands, only for them to phase right through it and embed themselves into his skin.

As if wondering what the point was, Asmodeus suddenly felt a sharp pain in his sides, as a black blur flew past him.

Looking at where the blur had landed, he lashed out with his baton, only for the blur to be gone, its claymore-esc scimitar leaving a trail of black blood down his wrist as it flew past him again.

“gRaHHHhhH!”

Now it was starting to hurt.

“Dormina!”

Turning to face the voice of the caster, Asmodeus grinned when he felt nothing as a slightly panicking Panther looked up at him.

A sense of glee seemed to form as Asmodeus’ eyes, raising his baton again to let it crash down onto the lady thief. Perhaps he could have some fun once the fight was done if he only broke her legs.

He swung the baton.

It connected, sending her flying into the wall, with a cry of glee escaping Asmodeus’ lips as the Thieves called out to her.

Or that’s how it was supposed to go.

Instead of getting the clean hit he wanted, Panther seemingly barely had to put in effort to avoid the blow. Even as the baton connected with the ground, it didn’t shake as violently as it had before, with her still standing on his feet.

It was at that moment Asmodeus realized what the spell cast by Joker had done to him.

Out of all of Arsène’s skills, this was the reason that Joker valued it the most.

Debilitate was an extremely powerful support spell that lowered an opponent’s power, defense, and agility, or accuracy and evasion, cast as a single spell.

It was a bit more taxing on his mind than a Tetrakarn, and its duration was somewhat short, or he thought it was, but the amount of support it gave his partners seemed to outweigh the short effect and high cost in his mind.

Looking at Joker again with more hatred in his eyes, Asmodeus let out a shriek, making the trophy shake before some legs seemed to sprout from it.

“Oh, gross!” Skull shouted, seeing the movement before he saw the color of the legs.

They were the same pale pink Asmodeus’ skin was, but seeing it on the legs squirming around in the trophy only seemed to fuel the anger in Panther’s heart.

It was the same pink that all the girls in the room when she had first awoken Carmen were before the fork came down.

There wasn’t a splattering of something like the thieves were expecting, but a pair of legs seemingly wrapped themselves around the tongs of the fork, letting themselves get carried up and eaten by Asmodeus.

Taking a quick glance at his wrist, a smile crossed the demon’s lips as he saw that it had stopped bleeding, and he gave a test swing of his baton in the air, destroying a pillar on impact.

Now he was good.

With a click of his tongue, Joker looked towards the trophy.

He didn’t know if it was an effect from eating from the trophy or not, but Debilitate had worn off as well. Looking at the rest of the thieves, looks of uncertainty on them, Joker nodded in confidence.

“Keep him busy!” was all he shouted, his pistol materializing in his hand as he took aim at the golden cup. The pistol was quite a mystery to him as he felt the cold metal through his glove.

It was a strange weapon, looking more like something out of a comic than an actual gun, its thin narrow barrel firing off rounds larger than itself. Towards the rear sight were two wings, a shade lighter than the gold of the rest of the weapon. While they should’ve made it harder for him to take proper aim with how they were positioned, it seemed like it didn’t hinder his actual aim, whether he was shooting with a name in mind or not. Like the rest of the weapons he had found when he explored around in the little pocket that had appeared in his moving box, how he had come to get them was quite a mystery to him.

It didn’t help that despite the fact that he had been told that he was playing an unfair game by Igor, as he was unsure of how he was going to explain that to his friends along with a ton of high-quality items appearing in the pocket as well.

He feared that it may have been a trap.

He had tried to think of a way to bring it up, but he just simply passed it off, unsure of what he was going to tell them.

Regardless, the fight was still ongoing, and the Thieves took Joker’s command and started to harass the demon with some shots.

Skull kept an eye on Joker though, as his shotgun, which had also come from the pocket, was limited to only three rounds per fight. As such, he often waited for permission to fire, which was granted with Joker showing him two fingers, giving him permission to fire two of his three rounds.

Unsure if he should really be shooting that much, Skull just kept the thought to himself, and fired a shell into Asmodeus’ side.

Reacting with a scream, the demon turned to face his offender, raising his knife into the air when he felt it get hit too. Looking around, he had missed someone get behind him, as he felt the peppering of bullets hitting his back side.

Roaring in anger, Asmodeus leaned backward, hoping to crush whoever it was who shot at him, but all he saw was a streak of red fly past him, as something kicked him as it flew past.

“Oh, that worked!” Panther sighed in relief, landing next to Skull as he put a hand out to catch her, as she stumbled a bit on landing.

“Told you! Man, Texas Terry is cool!” Skull laughed, running off with his Punished Mjolnir Mk. II as Mona ran up, a look of concern that was quickly brushed off as they heard a scream of pain from Asmodeus, a finger getting partially smashed in.

Taking the chance as the demon was more occupied with his hand, Joker took a shot at the trophy, to which Asmodeus immediately reacted to.

“heY! ThAT’s frOM my tIMe in COLLegE!!” he screamed, moving his tongue to cover the trophy.

“It takes damage! Keep him busy!!” Joker called out again, canceling the summon of his weapon as the wings and arms behind him started to take their full shape.

Seeing the form that was appearing behind their leader, the Thieves nodded, as Skull backed up and pulled out his shotgun, firing his second round into the hand holding the baton.

The hand burst, a flow of black blood starting to flow down from the wrist, as Asmodeus screaming in pain, looking around frantically for where he had positioned his trophy.

“YOu basTArD!!”

What had happened was that Skull had managed to land a critical hit, dealing a large burst of damage that he normally wasn’t able to do. It didn’t help Asmodeus that Skull’s Persona, Captain Kidd, had the highest physical attack aside from Joker’s Arsène, so he reeled in pain.

Seeing the legs squirming below his face, as if they were excited to be picked, his fork flew forward, skewering a body this time as it seemingly twitched in excitement. Before it could enter his mouth, it was destroyed, a ball of fire damaging it beyond a point where it was usable.

Glaring at the direction the fire had come from, Panther stood there with Carmen behind her, the tip of her cigar burning brightly as the two men she held placed their hands near the cigar, waiting in anticipation to fan the flames and grow a lager ball of fire.

With another roar, the demon leaned forward, his tongue that had been protecting the trophy launching forward to attack Panther, when he realized his mistake.

“Arsène! Eigaon!”

Looking down, Asmodeus could only look on in shock as a being clad in red, wings of twilight and a stovetop hat accenting the red, launched an orb of darkness towards his prized trophy.

Trying to pull his tongue back in time to defend it, he was too late. A pillar of darkness erupted when the small orb made contact with the golden cup, destroying it one attack.

This was the power of Arsène, the most powerful Persona among the ranks of the Phantom Thieves, as said Persona let out a laugh of glee, reveling in the destruction he had wrought in the name of his master.

“m-M-mY tRopHy!!”

As if a form of despair had taken Asmodeus, he leaned over, trying to form a new trophy out of the nothingness where it once stood.

“Hold Up!!” Joker called, prompting the Thieves to form a circle around the demon, firearms at the ready.

“Wha, WhaT dO yOu tHiNk yOU’rE DOinG?!” Asmodeus said glaring at the Thieves around him, trying to get up but suddenly finding himself unable to move.

“dOn’t You knOw wHO i am?!” he continued, still struggling to get up as hatred started to grow fiercer in his eyes, looking at everyone who surrounded him.

“I Am kInG! DO YoU knoW whAT haPpeNS to tHOse Who resIsT the kInG?!”

“Many revolutions have resisted kings. Your kingdom dies with you.”

With a twirl in his hands, Joker’s gun was replaced with a knife, prompting the rest of the Thieves to follow suit, a sudden burst of power and mobility in their movements.

They leapt with movement that would be impossible for any human to execute, slashing and smashing into Asmodeus as he sat there, unable to do anything but take the damage.

Hold Ups were something that Joker, and even Mona didn’t quite understand. However, what they did know was that there were some conditions needed to trigger them.

First was that the enemies before them had to be knocked down. If it happened because of critical hits, technical damage or attacks enemies were weak to, it didn’t seem to matter. Second was even if they were knocked down, if they didn’t surround the downed enemies, Hold Ups wouldn’t take effect.

It didn’t matter if the area they had to cover was the size of the school, so long as they encircled the knocked down enemies, they would be unable to resist and get up.

The second benefit of the Hold Ups was the follow up that they could trigger, All-Out Attacks.

This too, was something that the Thieves didn’t completely understand how it worked, but the damaged Asmodeus before them showed the power it could unleash.

Backing off as the All-Out Attack had ended, Asmodeus roared as he sat up straight, wildly flailing his remaining arms around.

In his wild movements, he started to smash some of the ‘things’ that had gone relatively undamaged during the whole fight, as well as destroying the chains that they were bound by.

“BrIng me mY SLAveS!!”

As if spurred on by the call, the ‘things’ started to scatter, prompting Panther to raise her SMG. A few rounds had left the muzzle, destroying every ‘thing’ a bullet hit before Joker shouted. “Stop! Save them for the big guy!”

Hesitating a bit after the call, Ann eventually nodded, putting her gun away and called Carmen forward, her cigar starting to light up once more.

Before the ball of flame could be fired, a meek voice could be heard, as if it were afraid to enter the battlefield.

“I-I-I’ve come u-upon the summons of the g-glorious Kamoshida-sa-sama!”

Turning towards the source of the voice, the Thieves paused as Mishima had seemingly come from nowhere. There was a limp visible in his step as he scrambled his way over, surprise being the only reason he managed to make it to Asmodeus’ side without getting hit.

“oH, so You’RE thE oNe Who shOWeD uP?” Asmodeus laughed, smashing his baton behind Mishima as he cowered, unable to resist the fear of getting hit.

“EveN somEONe WhO FaiLS to QualIfY AS a BEnCh warmER, yoU shoUlD be AbLE tO Do somEthIng as baSIC aS SerVIng mY glORioUs SelF!!” Asmodeus roared, continuing to smash the ground behind the boy as confusion started to line the faces of the thieves.

“Y-yes!! I-I can!!” Mishima shouted, arms trembling as a ball started to form in his hands.

“The hell is he doing here?!” Skull shouted, backing off from the fight as Panther joined him, with Mona and Joker were the ones who held the front.

“He’s just a cognition! Don’t worry about it!” Mona shouted, as he and Joker kept their ground, watching to see what sort of move Asmodeus would make.

With a gleeful laugh, he smashed the ground behind cognitive Mishima, shrieking at him to serve.

With a weak motion, the boy eventually did, raising the ball into the air before sending the ball up much higher than was normally possible.

Realizing what this meant, Joker suddenly dashed back, surprising Mona as Asmodeus leapt to the air, dropping his knife and fork.

“Guard!!”

It was a short command, one that could’ve been easily missed, but seeing how Joker had fled, the rest of the Thieves immediately took to a defensive posture.

Guard was another one of the peculiar commands of the Metaverse, where the simple act of taking a stance would change how attacks would interact with them.

It didn’t matter if you raised an arm, crossed your arms, covered your head, any action that indicated a defensive posture would trigger the effects of a Guard.

When it activated, the damage that the Thieves would take would be drastically reduced and things like weaknesses of certain Personas, like Carmen’s ice weakness or Captain Kidd’s wind weakness, wouldn’t trigger, keeping them from getting knocked down like their enemies would if they got hit by a move they were weak to. It would also prevent them from getting status as a secondary effect of moves, like burn from fire attacks or freeze from ice attacks.

There was one major drawback in guarding though, and that it would render anyone who Guarded temporarily immobile for about ten seconds or until they got hit, meaning that it was guaranteed that they would take a hit if an attack was coming their way.

It also seemed to have a cooldown period as well, where it would take thirty seconds after they used Guard to be able to use it again.

Once Asmodeus had reached the apex of his jump, his mostly undamaged right-sided hands smacked the ball launched into the air towards the Thieves.

Seeing the ball coming, Joker looked at it headlong, waiting for it to get closer, before he cast Tetrakarn again.

As he waited for the ball to make contact with the ground, Joker thought that something was strange. Looking up to Asmodeus, he saw that the demon had a grin on his face, as if he knew that Arsène’s counter would be unable to hurt him.

With a sudden burst of worry for himself, he didn’t have time to take a Guard posture, as the ball crashed into the ground, creating an explosion around where it landed.

Despite their defensive positioning, the Thieves felt the force of the impact, sending them sliding back as they took quite a hit.

There were cries of pain among the thieves once the attack had ended, but no healing skill was used. Mona was the only one with a group healing skill, but he needed line of sight for it to affect everyone. He could see Skull and Panther, but he couldn’t get a visual on Joker.

A sudden panic overtook them, as they realized that their leader was missing.

“Ren!” Skull shouted, breaking away from codenames as he ran towards the spot his leader had stood, as he looked around from that point, hoping for a basic idea of what happened to him.

“sEE! ThIs IS whAt haPpeNs to thOsE wHO REsiST thE KInG!!” Asmodeus laughed, smacking the ground once more, thinking that the annoyance had been vaporized on the spot. He kept his laughter up, hoping to drive despair into the rats before him when a gunshot hit him in the eye.

As he roared in pain, the Thieves turned to look where the shot had come from, a sigh of relief escaping their lips as Joker stepped forward, walking through the open doors of the throne room as the faint glow of Arsène lingered behind him.

God Spike was the name of the attack Asmodeus had used, a name that was never said, but what really mattered was the kind of attack it was and its qualities.

It had been the Thieves' first exposure to an Almighty attack. Almighty attacks were a type of attack that could bypass the defensive power of Arsène’s Tetrakarn and unused Makarakarn skills and land an attack on Joker. Almighty attacks got this ability by sacrificing some of their offensive power to hit anything. Even if they were weaker than an elemental skill of similar cost, one couldn’t deny the power they had to bypass defensive abilities. With no way to resist the incoming damage, the only thing that one could do was to guard against it to reduce how much damage you would take.

He would remember that for later.

The next thing he would take away from this would be the quality of God Spike that had led to the thieves thinking the worst had happened was the large amount of knockback that it generated. This is what had made them skid backwards even though they had taken defensive positioning, as Guard only raised one’s ability to reduce damage and prevent secondary effects.

Then the question became what counted as a secondary effect. Things like burn and freeze were accepted, but something like the ground shifting beneath their feet didn’t count as a secondary effect. Something like Asmodeus striking the ground to knock Skull off his feet didn’t count as a secondary effect, so if Skull had been Guarding when it struck, he would’ve been knocked to his feet.

So it meant that the pressure created by God Spike on its own was enough to push them back, it didn’t count as a secondary effect.

The only question left would be if all Almighty attacks had such properties. As hindsight would later tell Joker, Almighty attacks normally generated no knockback, so that meant something else had taken place.

It would eventually be classified as a ‘Boss Skill,’ something that only rulers of Palaces were capable of doing under the warped influence that they held in the Metaverse.

As he was making his way back, Joker’s posture when walking was somewhat leaned over, as if he had hit his back. There was also some blood running down his face, leaving a trail down his mask that made it seem as if he was crying tears of blood. But his eyes remained unchanged, the pistol in his hands staying true to its aim, as he shot another round into the same eye, making Asmodeus roll on the floor in pain.

“Dude!” Skull ran forward, attempting to help him get closer to the team when a hand came from behind Joker with a small ball of energy forming, prompting him to stop.

“Sorry,” Joker responded, the ball disappearing from Arsène’s hand as Mona ran forward and cast Media, fixing Joker’s posture slightly. Seeing that it wasn’t enough, he followed up with a second Media, as Panther used a Dia of her own.

It seemed to do the trick, as Joker regained his posture, standing up straight.

After giving his body a quick once-over, Joker looked forward. “His Majesty seems to be done with his tantrum,” he curtly said, keeping his pistol at the ready, prompting the Thieves to look at the rising demon, his right eye now shut.

Looking down at cognitive Mishima with his undamaged left eye, Asmodeus smashed the ground behind him, making the boy flinch and cower.

“nOT goOD EnoUgH!!” he roared, nearly hitting the cognition as he continued to flail about.

“GeT oUT of mY SigHT!!! GeT A BeTtEr SLaVE!!”

Cowering at the wild movements, the cognitive Mishima only let out a yelp of recognition, limping his way off the battlefield, Asmodeus watching to make sure he left.

“Now! While he’s looking away!”

Taking the chance that was provided with no support for the demon, Arsène fired off an Eigaon, engulfing one of Asmodeus’ hands in darkness as he screamed, turning his hatful gaze back to Joker.

“You JuSt NEEd to dIe likE tHe RaT yOU ArE!!!!”

Seemingly forgetting the lesson he had learned from the start of the battle, Asmodeus threw his knife, the one-meter blade careening towards the unmoving Joker, who just smirked at the mistake that had been made.

“Tetrakarn!”

The barrier that formed in front of Joker absorbed the knife, as if it were a portal to a different world, before it disappeared, making Asmodeus wonder what had happened, when he felt the sudden pain of something embedding itself into the hand engulfed in darkness.

Asmodeus’ screams of pain grew harsher when the darkness took the opening now present in his pierced hand and flowed in, dealing damage from inside.

The barrier itself hadn’t disappeared; instead, it just went faster. Once it had finished absorbing the knife, it had taken off with a much higher speed than it had with the volleyballs or the shards of glass, reflecting the power it had absorbed from the throw.

As the demon’s cry of distress egged them on, the Thieves rushed forward, only for Joker to pause, looking back to see what he had sensed coming towards them.

“Oh. It seems that I’ve been summoned to the glorious Kamoshida-sama’s side!” the figure said, once it had gotten closer, leaping over the thieves as it made its way over.

“Wha-” Panther found herself unable to move, her whip starting to phase in and out of existence upon hearing the voice.

“aHh!! sO A GOod onE cAmE ThIs tIMe!!!” Asmodeus smiled, as if he had forgotten all about his pain.

Sliding up to the demon’s side upon landing was a bunny girl that wore a white, fluffy, strapless bikini with a matching fluffy collar and cuffs, a volleyball held suggestively between her chest as she pressed up against the demon.

“Ah…” Panther had started crying, falling to her knees as she saw the scene before her.

“Panther!!” Joker called out, rushing over to her side, signaling for Skull to join him if they needed to move her out of the way of any attacks.

“Keep him busy Mona!” he said, watching the ‘cat’ look uneasy, as if he was unsure of what he was supposed to do.

“You can’t pick her up, keep them busy!” Joker clarified his orders, making Mona nod upon realizing what Joker had meant and pulled out his slingshot.

“AW, WhaT’S thE maTTeR?” Asmodeus laughed, running his tongue against the cognition as she leaned into it, taking delight in being covered with the slobber that came from the demon’s mouth.

“saD tHAt YoUr fRIenD is AS muCH oF a WhoRE yOu aRE?” he continued laughing, making Panther breakdown even further, sobs now audible from her as Joker and Skull pulled her to the side, avoiding the fork that was thrust their way.

Mona put his slingshot away and pulled his scimitar out, lunging at Asmodeus’ face with his blade aiming for the left eye. Asmodeus simply lowered his head, forcing Mona to change course lest he run into the crown and injure himself.

“yOu’rE GEttIng in tHE …” Asmodeus started, his eye looking at Mona, when he heard a yelp of pain come from his side, as Joker and Skull worriedly called out to Panther.

When he looked to his side, Asmodeus saw his slave on the ground, her rear up in the air as if asking for punishment, with Panther standing ahead of her friends, whip dematerializing with a hint of white on it’s tip, turning to face Joker as screamed “BATON PASS!”

There was a moment of hesitation in the throne room, as everyone looked at her with uncertainty, the tears running down her face as she stood there waiting with her hand up. Joker eventually ran up to her, Arsène appearing behind him as his hand hit Panther’s, an orb of darkness taking form as one of his feet was in the air.

Baton Pass was a command in the Metaverse where if one of the enemies had been knocked down by an attack, be it from a weakness or critical hit, it was one of the options that the Phantom Thieves could use during a phase Mona had called ‘1 More.’

1 More was a phase where both enemy and allies were unable to respond to anything till the one who had attacked had made a decision, be it to attack again, defend themselves, use an item or use a support skill. But for the Thieves, Baton Pass was a command that they could use to give the moment of everyone freezing to a different member, allowing them to attack or do something else. If they managed to pull off a full chain, the last person who received the Baton Pass could use skills freely without tiring their body or mind.

It was also a command that Joker normally gave out, with every Thief having practiced calling out when they had knocked an opponent down so that he could make a decision if someone else would use the 1 More or if the one who knocked the enemy down would continue.

It was a small thing, but if Panther was the one who gave the request, there was nothing more that Joker could do.

“Eigaon!!”

The orb was fired when the foot hit the ground, as Asmodeus could do nothing but watch something else be taken in front of him, his anger now rising to a dangerous level.

“yOU FUCKS!!!”

He was really screaming now, flailing around much wilder than before, even his feet started kicking around as some of the windows in the room shattering at his voice.

“YOU! YOU! YOU…!!”

Whatever Asmodeus wanted to say after that was incomprehensible, devolving into a series of screams and roars. With how much he had been flailing around, he didn’t notice how his crown started to wobble around a bit on his head.

But Mona, being the Treasure loving fiend he was, noticed it.

“Joker!” he called out, gaining his leader’s attention.

“The Treasure! It’s starting to wobble!”

Looking as Asmodeus’ head, Joker did see it start to move from side to side, looking around when he saw a balcony on the other side of the broken windows.

“Keep him busy! I got the crown!”

That was all he said before his grappling hook flew towards the newly exposed balcony, drawing Asmodeus’ attention with his movement.

The king roared as he threw his fork. It flew forward with much more speed than the knife had, hoping that it would kill the thief upon impact.

It did just that, impaling Joker and sticking him against a wall, twitching as he bleed out, with a hint of pink starting to show.

But once again, his preferred scenario never came to, when the fork suddenly veered off course with a bang, imbedding itself into a pillar.

Turning to see what had caused his shot to be messed up, Skull was putting his shotgun away, his final round being used to blast the fork away from his leader. With a grin, he turned to Mona and Panther, a thumbs up as he looked at them. “Let’s keep him busy!” was all he said, missing the grin from Joker as he shot his hook forward again, disappearing from everyone’s line of sight.

Roaring in anger once more, Asmodeus pulled the rest of the thieves’ attention to him as Captain Kidd, Carmen and Zorro showed themselves, the determination in their eyes matching that of their masters.

Grabbing onto their masters, the Personas scattered, Kidd sliding along the floor as he fired off beams of electricity from his hand cannon, making room for Zorro to carry Mona over Asmodeus who was forced to block some of the damage with his already damaged arms, trying to minimize losses as he was unable to heal himself.

Landing behind him, Zorro slashed at seemingly nothing, cutting the air as blades of wind flew forward slicing into the demon’s backside. Turning around, Asmodeus tried to fall on his back again, but Zorro was gone, holding Mona as he had his legs pressed against the wall. Before the demon could get up, Zorro flew towards the downed Asmodeus, his rapier going for the left eye. Trying to avoid losing his second eye, Asmodeus shot himself up, Zorro zooming past below him, only to take the bow of Kidd’s ship ramming into his chin, with Skull taking a swing at his tongue with his club.

While Asmodeus was distracted by the boys, Carmen pulled Panther back, her cigar starting to grow hotter as the men started to fan it faster, shooting fireballs at a faster rate than she normally would towards the king’s feet.

It was dangerous as Panther’s mental endurance was starting to crumble fast, but Joker had requested that they buy as much time for him as possible. That meant that she, the second most powerful spell caster in the group, would have to use those spells as much as possible to weaken their target. And that meant she was going to use a last resort item.

Well, it was a set of items, as Carmen leaned down to support her mistress and keep her head up as she sat down, a cup materialized into Panther’s hand.

Taking a sip, a brown liquid traveled down her throat, reinvigorating her mind as she dropped the cup, shattering before it hit the floor. Its pieces disappeared as she drank from a second one while Carmen was on watch, looking as Kidd and Zorro started to back up a bit, their movements slowing a bit as it became obvious that they had exerted themselves too much. Taking a brief glance down, she watched as Panther had finished her fourth cup before pushing herself up, giving a gentle hand to her mistress to correct her balance.

With a deep breath, she yelled “Clear!” her voice was somewhat ragged after her scream of Baton Pass. It was enough for her partners to hear her, backing up as they got out of her effective range.

Turning to see what was going on, Asmodeus saw that Panther was isolated and let his tongue fly forward.

Watching as the blue mass started to fly at her, she kept her nerve, and when it had reached the halfway point, she fired off three multi-target attacks, Maragi.

As the flames started to lick his tongue, Asmodeus pulled it back, desperately trying to beat it down as Carmen disappeared, with Ann leaning back and sat on the floor.

The items that she had drunk, coffee, had a peculiar effect in the Metaverse.

Much like coffee in the real world, it could stimulate the brain, creating an artificial feeling of energy in the person who drank it. Said feeling of energy would quickly disappear if no action was taken though, so Ann decided to use the most mentally intensive damaging spell she could while the effects still lasted.

While there was technically only one target, being Asmodeus, Panther was going to take advantage of a small quirk of the Metaverse. For some reason, multi-targets seemed to work that if an enemy had disappeared from your line of sight but could still be hit by an attack, it would count as a separate target.

By waiting for the tongue to block her line of sight of Asmodeus, Maragi had counted both the tongue and the body as separate targets, increasing the amount of damage that Panther did.

But in using such a mentally exhaustive spell so many times, she couldn’t keep herself up, the energy she felt from drinking the coffee disappearing along with her Persona.

Sitting down as her teammates stood in front of her, Panther lazily looked up, wondering when Joker was going to do whatever he had in mind when she saw something move towards the ceiling.

Watching it move, it landed on a chandelier, making her realize what it had meant.

As she waited for a few moments, she heard a familiar voice shout “Long live the king, for his reign has ended!” 

Asmodeus turned his head to face the source of the voice, only to have his head knocked back with the same voice shouting “God’s Hand!” sending his crown flying. By the time his head was lined back up, a blur of red and black had swung around and landed neatly on the chandelier.

It took the king a few seconds to realize what had happened, feeling his head as he saw that his crown was on the floor.

“WHA” was all he could say before a clean, crisp, “Watch your fallen kingdom in sorrow,” came from above him, making him look up to see who had said it.

He was then shot between the eyes as Joker looked down, watching the Shadow start to dissolve before him.

Turning his attention away from his defeated enemy, a surge of energy flowed through the Thieves, giving Panther enough strength to get up and meet Joker, who let himself down on his grapple.

“Dude, that was AWESOME!” Skull shouted, making Joker smirk as he shrugged, returning a fist bump that made its way to him.

“What took you so long?” Mona asked, climbing up Joker’s shoulder and rubbing his cheeks, ignoring the ‘cat’ he heard from Panther.

“I went around towards the back of the treasury. I tell ya, it wasn’t easy trying to fit between those bars with wings like mine,” Joker said, as Arsène’s wings appeared and gave a small flap, prompting a laugh from his team.

As they turned to face the fallen crown, it shrunk to a size a human could reasonably wear. Skull took the first step forward, making him the one to pick up the crown.

“Well, let’s get out of here,” he said, leaning over as he got closer, only for a flash of pink and red to roll in front and grab the crown.

Turning to look at who had rolled away with the crown, the Thieves stopped when Kamoshisa’s Shadow had his back to them, standing on a veranda with his cape torn in many places, with some cuts visible on the skin underneath.

He looked around frantically, as if there was still a chance for him to escape with the crown in his hands.

“What’s wrong?” Panther spat, trying to hit the Shadow but he was too far, her spit making it about half-way.

“What’s wrong?” Kamoshida said, turning around with hate in his eyes.

“What’s wrong is I had to do all sort of shit for this school, and I barely get anything for it!” he shouted, looking at the Thieves as they closed the distance between them.

“Those fucking hyenas, forcing all of those expectations on me! What’s wrong in wanting a reward!”

A crack filled the air as Panther’s whip barely missed Kamoshida, striking at his feet and making him yelp, moving closer towards the edge.

Feeling his back against the railing, the Shadow looked down, wondering if he could survive the fall.

“Want to jump, you little bitch.”

Panther took a step forward, as Mona and Skull attempted to stop her, only for Arsène to shoot a wing and an arm out, blocking both of them from intervening, with a look from Joker telling them to stay back.

“You’re facing the same thoughts that Shiho had when she was on the roof,” Panther continued, taking more steps as Kamoshida started to cry.

“W-wa-wait! Y-you want this, right?” he asked, tossing the crown towards her.

She caught it, took a brief look at it, before tossing it over her shoulder, not bothering to see where it landed, though it never did, as Joker caught it with his grappling hook, pulling it into his hands as he kept watching, putting the crown into his strange pockets.

“I-I, I gave it to you, so you’ll give m-me mercy, right?” Kamoshida continued to cower, as the whip suddenly flew past his head, making him cry once more.

“Mercy for someone like you isn’t enough,” Panther said, her mask burning as Carmen appeared before her, her cigar lighting up once more.

“F-fine, it’s your win. I’m no longer the ruler, I should be disposed of,” Kamoshida said, lowering his head.

“Lady Ann,” Morgana finally spoke as Arsène’s wing disappeared, indicating that Ren was done intervening.

If she heard him or not, she didn’t show, as the tip of Carmen’s cigar glowed brighter, the ball of flames growing larger.

It shot forward, making contact with the Shadow’s body a faint hiss sound of his tears evaporating as his body disappeared.

But it didn’t happen.

The fireball flew right past him, disappearing either into the distance or burning itself out, as Ann turned away.

“Go and confess what you did. Shiho won’t be avenged unless you do so.”

Her mask was still gone, as tears ran down her face, mixing with some blood that was running down her lip, a result of her biting it to keep her from killing the Shadow.

With his head lowered, Kamoshida cried again, softly chanting ‘I’ll confess,’ as light surrounded him before he disappeared.

And the demon king that was Suguru 'Asmodeus' Kamoshida was defeated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Autocorrect tried to turn Eigaon into pigeon.  
> I thought it was funny  
> Also link:  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/24510076/chapters/59167783


	2. Ichiryusai ‘Azazel’ Madarame

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to Dev0ted who beta-ed this.  
> There's supposed to something new in the works coming from them, so keep an eye out for that.

“Watch your step!”

That was the last thing Joker said before jumping down, keeping his eyes towards the steps below.

They were less steps and more part of the strange design that was the Palace of Madarame, resembling a series of stone slabs that were covered in gold.

Reaching a part where it eventually flattened out, the Thieves looked around only to find that there was no way down.

“Shit!” Skull shouted, making up the rear as he looked back, making sure that no one had followed them down the side.

Glancing around for a way down, the newest member of the team, Fox shouted “There!” pointing at a rising pillar that was near the edge of the building.

Towards its base, there was a door that resembled one of the many other doors that they had used to move through the strange plane of gold they had to traverse before reaching the gallery that the Treasure was kept in.

Giving him a thumbs up, Joker moved towards it, the rest of the Thieves following in suit.

The doorway itself didn’t have the gold or blue light emanating from it like it did in the plane, a strange mixture of red and green spiraling before them.

“Well that looks fun,” Panther said, glancing down towards the courtyard below, trying to see if she could find a different path to the bottom.

“No turning around though, they’re coming down!” Skull shouted, as Joker turned his head back to confirm.

At that moment, the spiraling colors shifted from red and green to a solid green.

“Go!”

Turning at his shout, the Thieves watched as their leader leapt through the door, making them rush through as well.

When they got out, they were in the courtyard, as Joker was stuck in a bush, slashing his way out with Paradise Lost R, having seemingly run into it and unable to stop.

“Help?”

“You know, of all the things you’re capable of doing, not doing anything when you’re not in danger has to be the strangest thing about you,” Skull said as he pulled his friend out, with Mona just shaking his head.

“You don’t know if he could’ve put a trap in there or- whoa!”

He was trying to chastise him, leaning back for eye contact, but with the Treasure on his back he nearly lost his balance. He only maintained it because Fox stuck a foot out to keep him from falling over.

“Well, it just meant that there was no danger. And even if there was, I doubt it would be able to take him down,” Panther said, chuckling at the hiss Mona gave Fox, who seemed rather confused about the sudden aggression.

“Now, lets-”

Before Joker could finish his statement, the hiss Mona was giving quickly changed into a mew.

“Ah! I couldn’t look because we were moving, but I’m gonna do it!”

Making his way towards the center of the courtyard, Mona placed the treasure down and started to untie the fabric he carried it down in.

“Oh, Treasure, Treasure, Treasure~~”

“Is he alright?” Fox asked, turning to Panther for an answer.

“He was like that last time too. Better to have it out of his system now,” annoyance evident in the way she huffed her answer.

“Oh~~, I can’t wait!”

Mona was done untying the fabric, the four corners of the cloth now covering the face of the object.

With everyone’s attention on him, he unfurled the cloth, wondering what sort of glorious piece would be awaiting him.

“I thought you knew the difference between fakes and the real deal.”

Turning his head towards Skull, Mona glared at him, looking like he wanted to say something, but noticed that everyone else seemed to agree. He looked for himself.

A _henohenomoheji_ looked back at him, the dumb face staring at the ‘cat’ that couldn’t seem to believe his eyes.

“Wha. B-but, it should’ve.”

As he stood their stuttering, Ren caught something rising from the ground behind him.

He jumped back, “Move!” alerting the rest of the Thieves who jumped back as well. Mona needed to be grappled to safety as he stood there in shock.

Four pillars had risen from the ground, the same type that had impeded their dive before, and surrounded the ‘painting’ with an electric current. Mona landed on Joker’s shoulder once he realized he was airborne.

“Ah ha ha ha!! What sort of fool would just leave the real deal for some children to take?!”

Turning around the sudden laugh, they were faced with the ruler of the Palace, Madarame, dressed in his overly gaudy traditional dress glimmering with gold as two additional Shadows stood by him, with one holding something under its arm.

“Sensei,” Fox said quietly, his nerves making themselves known in his soft tone.

“Since you won’t be getting out of here in one piece, I’ll give you the privilege of seeing true beauty.”

Reacting to those words, the Shadow that was holding something lifted up a painting, prompting a gasp from Fox and Panther.

“Tha, that is.”

“Behold, the true face of ‘Sayuri’!!”

Much like the famous painting, there was a woman looking down at something, a plum branch with a few blossoms behind her. But instead of a gray cloud, a baby was in the woman’s arms, her look becoming almost peaceful.

Fox could only look on in shock, mind seemingly processing what he was seeing.

“Th-the true face?” he asked, trying to figure out what his mentor meant.

“Let me tell you something Yusuke. You were never my son,” Madarame started, the sudden shift in tone surprising the Thieves.

“The only reason you’re even here is because of your mother’s efforts,” Madarame continued, pacing around as the two other Shadows stepped back.

“She never lost her passion when her husband died, but she had nowhere to go. Having the eye that I did, I offered her refuge, which made her and her work mine.”

The look of shock on Fox’s face seemed to please the Shadow, pacing once more.

“You were born shortly after, a last gift from her husband if you will. That was when she started to paint Sayuri.

She seemed to have lost her motivation afterwards, and those who don’t provide for me are promptly destroyed,” Madarame said, to which Panther seemed to snap.

“You killed her?!” she shouted.

“Why would I do something so barbaric? And get blood on my hands?”

The Shadow shook his head.

“Such childish thoughts. She simply had a seizure. She had gotten weak about a year after you were born,” Madarame faced Fox, as if accusing him of being the reason why she died.

“As she laid there on the floor, I thought to myself that it was the perfect chance to take her works for myself.”

A chuckle.

“No one would think of it as strange if a weak woman just fell over and croaked. And her works would come to me for free as her patron.”

“You, you let my…”

Fox had fallen to his knees, face paling as more and more of his world collapsed around him.

“And since Sayuri was mine, I made some slight edits to it, that made why she was looking down so mysterious.

And those idiots who called themselves critics ate it up!”

The Shadow bent over in laughter, as if he couldn’t believe his own words.

“However, if word had come out that she had a son, everything would naturally have gone to you instead. So I took you in as well, keeping those who would say it should go to you quiet and to keep you from figuring out the truth.”

“B-but, you teaching me…” Fox said weakly, as if to try to find something he could keep a grasp on, to not let his world be completely destroyed.

“You were just a lucky bonus, a freebie. Or maybe the last of your mother’s work for me to take.”

No warmth.

No comfort.

Just a cold, careless voice.

“Since you’ve chosen to defy me, I’ll make it so that once you leave, you never get to stand on your own. Those who have connections make the rules, and those who make the rules survive!”

Madarame started to laugh again.

“You’ll come crawling back to me in order get you miserable little existence validated by the art world!!”

As the rest of the Thieves stood with their fists clenched, Fox eventually got up a small smile on his face.

“I have to thank you for that.”

“Hm?” Madarame seemed rather unamused.

“Now, I will have no regrets running you through with my blade,” Fox said as his smile disappeared, his face hardening as he took a battle stance.

“Ah ha ha ha!” the Shadow laughed, his body starting to pulsate, setting the veteran Thieves on guard.

“AH HA HA HA!!”

As he laughed, Madarame’s Shadow was seemingly melting, as if his skeleton had disappeared and he had turned into slime.

Eventually, his Shadow turned into a puddle of black goo, with the two Shadows that had been accompanying him jumping into the goo, making Fox try to reach out and grab the painting, only for Joker to stop him.

“You’ll damage it.”

Turning to face Skull, Joker jerked his thumb back, a nod and salute coming his way as Skull backed up, standing about 20 meters away from the rest of the group.

While it seemed strange to have one of their own leave the field, it was a necessary setback which Joker had called ‘Defender’s Advantage.’

They first got a taste of this phenomenon when Fox first awoke his Persona, and all five of them tried to engage in combat.

They were faced against a group of enemies who should’ve been weak to ice elemental damage, but they had somehow come out unscathed.

Seeing that something was wrong, Joker had called everyone to back up and someone guard Fox while the other two keep the Shadows busy until Arsène could deal with all of them individually.

Fleeing once Fox was unable to continue fighting after awakening, he and Mona thought about it for a long time.

As such, they dove into Mementos to experiment, where they realized the Metaverse had thrown them another strange rule to abide by.

The first thing they had come to realize was that they were limited in the number of people who could actually engage in combat and still be effective. This was a realization they made when Skull had hit a Shadow with an attack it should’ve been weak to, only for the Shadow to not be knocked over. Thinking that it was strange, Joker told Mona to stand back a bit, before Panther hit a Shadow weak to fire, triggering a 1 More.

Seeing a sudden change in performance, they kept experimenting, realizing that they could only have four members take the field and remain effective in combat.

Theorizing many reasons why it could be the case, Joker eventually came to the conclusion that since they were technically seen as a threat and were invading an area, the distortions of the Metaverse would try to help the master of said distortions, giving them a ‘defender’s advantage’ in combat, hence the name.

But that only raised more questions.

If Mementos was the public Palace, why would it have the same rules as a Palace with a ruler.

Did Mementos have a ruler?

If yes, did it view the Thieves as a threat?

Why did it view them as a threat?

Why limit them to four?

Many such thoughts would go through his mind, but at the moment, he was watching as four blobs started to rise from the collective goo pile, floating in the air with the last and largest one taking the rest of the goo with it.

The blobs started to take shape, as eyes, a nose and mouth came from the blobs, encased in frames.

“grA hA Ha h-!”

Before it could finish laughing, the frame that had a mouth was hit by a small ball of darkness that erupted into a pillar, destroying it and turning into a pile of goo once more.

“I prefer a different meaning of a picture being able to talk.”

Splitting up at the disappearance of the mouth, Panther pulled out her SMG and fired without restraint, hitting all the paintings at least twice.

“Painter’s eyes! Painter’s nose!” she shouted, with nods of confirmation coming from the other Thieves.

Joker pulled his own pistol out and shot the nose, destroying it one blow.

“This’ll be easy!” Mona shouted, summoning Zorro and cast Magaru, snickering as he figured that it would be done with that.

As the blades of wind hit the eyes, they burst as well, joining the rest of the goo on the ground below.

Except it didn’t happen.

As if seeing the attack coming, the eyes rushed into them, startling everyone as they took the hit in stride, before making their way towards the pile of goo, with one of the eyes diving in.

All Thieves watched in confusion, then horror for some as the nose and mouth reemerged with the eye.

“Oh, come on!” Panther shouted, stepping out of the way as the mouth moved towards her, barely missing her tail as it bit down.

Looking at the sudden and unexpected outcome, Joker took a step back, tearing his mask off as Arsène appeared behind him.

“Form up!”

His command was clear, pulling the Thieves in combat to him, forming a line as Arsène kept a ball of dark energy in his hands, keeping the paintings away from them.

“So, any ideas?” Mona started, the ball of energy fluctuating in Arsène’s hands as the nose moved closer, as if to say, ‘hit me.’

“Fox, try raising your gun at the nose, see how it responds,” Joker said, gesturing for Panther and Mona to stand down.

Summoning his assault rifle, Fox took aim and the nose immediately backed down, as it and the mouth seemingly circled between themselves, looking like they hoped to cover the other.

Saying nothing, Joker turned to face Panther, a ripping motion at his face telling her what she needed to know.

As the flames around Carmen’s cigar started to form a ball of fire, the eyes moved into the formation, as if to block any attack Carmen would send their way.

“I see,” Joker said, the ball of energy disappearing from Arsène’s hand, his mask reappearing as he put a hand on Fox’s rifle, pushing down.

Confusion ran on both the faces of the Thieves and the painting, given by its change in movement, as Joker bent over to look at Mona.

“Tell Skull to check the premises of the courtyard. See if he can find anything strange or something that could be used to hamper the paintings,” he told the ‘cat,’ a nod of confirmation showing he got it as he scrambled back, running towards his teammate on stand-by, Arsène appearing behind Joker once more.

“Raise your gun, Fox,” Joker said, his kitsune masked partner did as instructed, his rifle pointed towards the spinning paintings.

“What’s the plan?” Panther asked as embers started to fly from the cigar, her eyes glued to the paintings.

“We wait for Skull to find something. It’s afraid of Arsène, and it’s mouth has been the only thing able to attack so far,” Joker said, slowly starting to side step as the group followed. “Seeing how it’s also afraid of my gun, Fox’s gun should be enough to take whatever it hits as well.”

“Skull’s looking,” Mona announced, making his presence known as he slid into the formation, his back facing the rest of the group.

“If he finds nothing?” Fox asked, briefly glancing down to see where Mona was relative to his footing.

“If there’s nothing, we slug it out.”

Shaking her head, Panther allowed herself a look back, before turning to face the spinning paintings.

“Find something, Ryuji.”

As the Thieves continued their little dance, Skull was running around the courtyard, looking to see if there was something that could help his friends, when he spotted a sign in the corner of the courtyard.

There was a cart there, with cans of seemingly the same ooze that the paintings had come from. On the cart with a piece of paper taped on it that said ‘For the volunteer room. Use to destroy worthless donations.’

Looking back to the center of the action, Skull watched as the top hat of Arsène and the smoke of Carmen’s cigar, the only indication of movement he could see, move in a circle around the paintings.

He had heard the lack of activity a while ago, but seeing that they were stuck circling their enemy made him think about what he had found.

Shifting his eyes between the cans and the floating paintings, Skull shrugged his shoulders, a quiet “eff it” whispered under his breath and started to move the cart towards the center of the courtyard.

As Mona kept his eyes open for any kind of additional enemy that may have been hidden, he spotted Skull running towards them, with Captain Kidd standing behind, indicating that he had found something.

“Joker, Skull found something,” he said, making the formation pause.

“Go see what it is, we’ll start circling the other way.”

Breaking away from the formation, Mona ran towards Skull, slowing down as he got close to the effective combat range of the Thieves.

“What did you find?” Mona asked.

“Paint,” Skull said, gesturing to the cans he carried over.

“Paint?” Mona asked, suddenly nervous about the situation ahead of them.

“Yeah. There’s a paper on there that says it's for destroying worthless donations,” Skull said, a grin slowly spreading across his face.

“I wonder what would happen if we splashed that onto him?”

After a few seconds of thought, Mona nodded in agreement and rushed back to the rest of the Thieves.

“Remember, it’s the pistol!” he shouted as he ran back, making Skull grin as Kidd started to appear behind him once more.

“So it’s a good find?” Joker asked as Mona ran up to him, facing the paintings as he took his slingshot out, making the mouth seemingly twitch in annoyance.

“Yeah, we need to give him a wide range though,” Mona said, stepping back as if to indicate how far they needed to go.

Nodding in confirmation, Arsène disappeared as Joker pulled his pistol out, firing it into the air.

Shattering the balance that had been set, the paintings charged forward, thinking that there was no chance for the dark ball of energy that had destroyed its mouth would have a chance at hitting it again, when it saw something new coming towards it.

Turning an eye to see what was coming, it spotted a ship charging right at it, as two people on said ship were seemingly holding something in their hands.

Unsure of what the people were supposed to be holding, the eye squinted, trying to see what they were, when it realized a bit too late.

Kidd came crashing into the eye, destroying it on impact and ignored the ooze below him, and kept charging towards the rest of the paintings.

Feeling that one of its eyes was missing, the paintings froze, unable to look back and see what had happened, when it suddenly couldn’t feel anything.

“Have fun!!” Skull shouted as he zoomed past the Thieves, a thumbs up and a grin on his face with some of the black ooze, unaware of its presence as Kidd carried him out of the effective combat range.

After a brief smile, Joker shouted “Heat Wave!” prompting Mona and Panther to step forward with their Personas while he and Fox stepped back.

As the painting started to fly around wildly, unable to figure out what had happened to them, Carmen leaned her head back as a ball of fire grew larger on the end of her cigar. Standing behind her, Zorro lashed out, cutting into the air in front of the fireball.

After a short delay, the fireball careened forward, flying at a speed much faster than it normally could as blades of wind followed right behind it.

The nose was the first to be hit, prompting an explosion of fire that hit the rest of the paintings.

Rising to avoid the flames, they were suddenly hit with blades of wind, knocking them to the ground as they started to ooze together.

“Quite beautiful if I say so myself,” Mona puffed out his chest, getting a light tap on the back of his head by Joker’s foot, snapping him back to the moment as they saw Madarame’s shadow start to rise from the muck.

Looking around, he was on one knee, seemingly struggling to get up, when Joker shouted for a Hold Up.

Circling around the downed painter, the Thieves held their guns up, keeping Madarame from getting up as anger flared in his eyes.

“Don’t think this changes anything!” he shouted, struggling as he found himself unable to stand up.

“Tastes change with the times.”

Looking at Joker with a raised brow, the Thieves quietly shifted away from their firearms and started to pummel the Shadow with an All-Out attack.

Growling once he was able to get up, Madarame glared at everyone around him, his anger palpable with the changing atmosphere.

“Guard!” Joker shouted, prompting everyone to follow in suit, trusting their leader in his call.

“Those who make the rules make them to come out on top!” Madarame shouted, some ooze leaking from his feet, with other versions of himself rising from the muck.

Seeing the change, Joker immediately stepped back, trying to see what the trick was.

“Copies?” Mona shouted, falling in line with Joker as the other two followed up, their eyes shifting between the many copies before them.

“I see, so that’s your true power, huh?” Mona said, looking to see if Joker had figured out what he had.

“Can’t make anything on your own so just make a change to something that already exists!” he shouted, Zorro coming forward and taking a slash at one of the copies.

Of the copies that had come forward, there was one major difference between them and the real Madarame.

The fakes were dressed in four colors: green, red, blue and yellow. While it seemed like that would’ve been the giveaway, the yellow copy was of a similar color to that of Madarame’s gold. If that was what made it a minor detail, what was the real difference?

It was the small sparks emanating off them.

Or embers.

Or shards of ice.

Or the hint of green that indicated wind power.

Seeing that, Mona targeted the copy that had sparks flying off it.

Knocking it over, Mona looked at Joker who nodded and shouted, “Panther up! Target blue!”

Lowering her hand to reach Mona, Panther stepped forward, receiving the Baton Pass as a fireball was already forming on Carmen’s cigar which flew forward once she clapped hands with the ‘cat’. Turning her gaze to Fox, Panther held a hand out when Joker shouted “Joker up!”

Everyone turned to him, as if trying to figure an answer out, but he just raised his hand and made his way towards Panther.

Eventually accepting that he had a plan in mind, Panther met him, hands clapping.

“Ame-no-Uzume!”

Floating behind Joker, a woman dressed in a flowing kimono and sensu fans in her hands, along with one covering her eyes came forward, the fans in her hands rubbing together.

Shouting ‘Ziondyne,’ the fans sparked before firing off a bolt of electricity at its target, destroying it one blow as a crack of thunder followed.

Skull could hear the clap as he stood back, whistling as he saw the crazy power that his leader could use.

“Someday,” he said quietly, taking his mask off without summoning Kidd, holding it in his hands.

“Someday.”

Satisfied that the target was gone, Joker turned to face Fox, raising a hand up. Not even needing a command, Fox rushed forward, Goemon forming behind him as his kiseru pipe started to form shards of ice.

With the clap of hands, the shards of ice flew forward with Goemon blowing into the pipe, hitting the last of the copies, sending it to the ground with Fox turning to Joker for further instruction.

Pulling his dagger out, Joker made a slashing motion over four of his fingers, giving the inari mask an idea of what he meant.

“Vicious Strike!” he shouted, making Goemon raise his pipe and slash the bottom end of the tip against everyone. Goemon’s pipe had a small blade at its end, requiring a large amount of precision to hit targets on its blade, making it, perhaps, the perfect weapon for an artist, where only the tip at the end of his brush mattered.

Destroying the remaining copies and hitting Madarame, who staggered back from the blow, Goemon let out a huff of satisfaction, blowing into his pipe and puffed out a ring of chilled air as if it were smoke.

Looking up and down, Madarame started to feel enraged as he saw that his topknot had been bent and there was a cut on his robes.

“Do you know how much that cost?” he roared, looking at Fox, only to stagger a second time as a bullet hit him, going through his shoulder and making him slide even further back.

Turning to see who shot him, he saw Joker lowering his pistol, as Arsène came forward a second time, making Madarame panic slightly.

Copies came forward once more, but in his panic, there was a noticeable drop in quality with these copies.

Some of them were missing hands, fingers, one was even missing an arm.

“Heh. He talks the talk, but when it comes to it, he can’t deliver anything at all, can he,” Mona huffed, looking at Joker to see who would start the next Baton Pass chain.

Joker ignored the question, canceling his summon of Arsène and pulled his pistol out.

“Spread shot.”

Responding in kind, Panther pulled her SMG and fired, destroying all the copies with one shot as Madarame got peppered with more rounds.

With a raised fist, Joker signaled Panther to let go of the trigger, watching as Madarame fell over, suddenly afraid of what was before him.

Walking forward, he gestured for Fox to come with him, his pistol twirling in his hands as he fired a warning shot next to Madarame’s head.

“Give it up.”

A part of Madarame pulsated, making a second shot fire next to his head. Madarame screamed, making Sayuri pop out as he held it up, acting as if it were a shield.

“I’ll take that,” Yusuke said, bending over to grab the painting, but was met with resistance.

“W-wait! Nobody wants something unrecognizable!” Madarame shouted, his grip on the painting getting firmer.

“I’m a victim too you know! I needed a brand!”

“What good is a brand if you were fake to begin with,” Ryuji said, riding in on Captain Kidd as he joined the rest of the Thieves who walked up, surrounding Madarame so he couldn’t escape.

“Please, Yusuke!” Madarame started to beg, tears forming in his eyes as Sayuri was ripped from his hands.

“You need money to advance in the world of art! Without money, you’re nothing!”

Seeing his pupil’s back, Madarame started to cry.

“I didn’t want to go back to being a poor artist!”

“With the number you’ve driven to poverty, you have nothing to say,” Yusuke stopped, turning to face the man he had once called his teacher.

“Confess your sins and repent for the lives you have destroyed.”

Lowering his head, Madarame started to say that he was sorry, before he looked up, a sudden fear in his eyes.

“Can you at least keep the Black Mask away?”

Stopping at that, Ren turned to face Madarame, Arsène now out and looking around.

“Black Mask?” he asked, slowly lowering himself as he looked at Madarame, a hard look in his eyes.

“Don’t believe that crap Ren! Let’s go!” Ryuji shouted, putting an arm on Ren’s shoulder.

“No! He’s here!” Madarame shouted looking off into the distance, making Ren follow his gaze.

“There’s nothing old man,” Ren said, as Madarame kept looking.

“No, he was there.”

That was the last thing Ichiryusai ‘Azazel’ Madarame, a faux commander of the art world, said before fading away, chanting ‘Protect Sayuri.’


	3. Junya 'Bael' Kaneshiro

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to AProxyNation for beta-ing this. Links to their works in the notes below.

As they stood in the elevator making their way down to the Treasure, Queen shuffled somewhat awkwardly in place.

“Uh, um,” she murmured quietly, looking around to see if anyone would say anything.

“If it’s about our jump to the Safe Room, forget it and don’t think about it. You’ll make a mistake fighting.”

Joker’s firm voice cut through her, prompting a small smack to her cheeks as she readied herself to enter combat.

When they entered the Palace, everyone had lined up for the normal dive into the dimensional pocket as usual. However, Queen had a sudden burst of nerves, tripping as she ran down the line, making everyone trip and stumble as they came out of their desired Safe Room. While she did apologize for it, no one seemed to be concerned about it, an air of needing to guide the rookie seemingly over the veteran Thieves.

Maybe she should’ve…

“You’re thinking about things that can only hurt us. If you don’t feel confident, you can always switch with someone.”

Looking in surprise, Queen looked at Joker, who looked back at her, shifting in place as they waited for the elevator to continue downward.

“Do you need to stand back?”

“No, I got this,” Queen eventually said, Joker gave a steady nod as he turned forward toward the elevator door.

Hearing the ‘thunk’ of the elevator touching the ground, the Thieves entered high alert, everyone taking combat stances as the doors opened.

Walking out, everyone looked around to see the giant wall that had suddenly risen up in the middle of the room, where a spinning lock was in the center.

“So he made a safe, huh. This Palace isn’t a bank for nothing,” Mona scoffed, looking around as everyone else stepped forward.

It was as they remembered, a circular room with safes lining the whole thing, their locks spun in tandem with the giant lock in the center.

“Well, if it isn’t the little shits who couldn’t pay up,” a voice said from the middle of the room, drawing the Thieves’ attention to him.

“Kaneshiro,” Queen said under her breath.

Standing in front of the spinning lock, a stubby man stood there with some of his goonies at his side, many of the faces that Joker recognized as the ones prowling the streets to get some kids to do their work.

“Figured you would be here,” Skull said quietly, rolling his shoulders a bit as he got his final stretch before combat.

“What, did you think I would allow some maggots who got in here to be so lucky as to get out unharmed?” the rather fat man said, tugging on his suit as if to look the part of a proper businessman.

“Poor choice of words, fat man,” Joker said, picking up the ire of Shadow.

“The fuck you say?” Kaneshiro said quietly.

Watching the reaction, Joker just shrugged as he shook his head.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I guess I never got the payment to say nice things about you either.”

With a twitching brow, Kaneshiro just pointed at Joker, his henchmen cracking their knuckles.

Before one could make a move though, a hole was blown into one of their heads, disintegrating as Fox lowered his rifle.

“For that to be the image you have of your own subordinates. Truly, you have no sense of value.”

“Ah, what for? If it’s money they want, they’ll come to me,” Kaneshiro said as he glared at the cognitions who stopped moving as if they were no longer valuable.

“In exchange for gaining access to my profits, I take some money from them. It’s only natural that the strong take from the weak,” the Shadow continued, acting as if the shaking men beside him weren’t there at all.

“Sounds rich coming from you. You probably couldn’t stop them from tipping you over,” Joker said, drawing another reaction from Kaneshiro.

“Is he going to be okay?” Queen asked Panther, her voice barely a whisper as she watched the Shadow start to lose his cool.

“Yeah. Seems strange coming from him, doesn’t it,” she responded before Kaneshiro started to pulsate.

“Oh god, not him too,” Skull said quietly as the cognitions around Kaneshiro started to panic, running away without even looking back something burst from Kaneshiro’s eyes.

Instead of normal human eyes, a pair of compound eyes looked back at the Thieves as a buzzing of flapping wings started to reverberate in the air.

“I’m gonna swarm you till there’s not even a single coin to your names’!!” Kaneshiro screamed as a pair of fly wings finally burst from his back.

Without a moment of hesitation, Arsène came forward, and Kaneshiro seemed to freeze a bit upon looking at the Persona.

“Well, time to bring out the big guns!” he shouted, voice faltering a bit as he backed up, the sound of the lock opening ringing behind him.

Taking off backwards, the lock opened up and Kaneshiro entered, crawling his way in instead of flying. With the lock closing behind him, the sound of metal clanging together got even louder until the wall it kept in place slid out of the way.

“Wha, what is with that pig?” Mona asked, with the rest of the Thieves looking up with him.

“WHAT!” the Shadow’s voice shouted, making the Thieves look around for the source.

“You dare call my Piggytron a pig!! You uncultured swine!!”

Looking up, the Thieves were face to face with a five-meter sphere of solid steel.

It was shaped like a piggy bank, with the lock from the wall being the nose, a set of security cameras making up its eyes as four tiny legs propped it up, shaking the ground with the few steps it took to move forward.

“Prepare to taste its mighty power!”

“Split!” Joker shouted as Panther, Skull, and Queen flared out around him while Fox and Mona backed up.

“Target confirm!” Joker shouted at Panther, who pulled out her SMG and let a round fly.

“Piggytron!” she shouted, making Joker nod as Arsène started to form a trio of spheres.

“Debilitate!” Joker shouted as the orbs flew, turning to Skull and Queen.

“Cover!” he shouted, as the two nodded their heads in confirmation, as Seiten Taisei and Johana came forward.

“Rakukaja!”

“Tarukaja!”

A red glow surrounded Queen as a purple one took to Panther, grinning as she called Carmen to the stage.

“Agi!” she shouted, as a ball of fire flew forward, bursting against the metal ball with a hissing sound.

“Hey! What are you doing to my Piggytron!” Kaneshiro’s voice rang, as the small legs that supported Piggytron seemed to sink into its body.

Wondering what was going to happen, the Thieves got their answer when Piggytron’s body shot up, as the springs and hydraulics that were hidden from sight in its legs shot the robot into the air, slamming into the ground as it landed.

Reacting a bit too late for any defensive call, the Thieves could only watch as the ground beneath their feet shifted, launching them into the air as the floor rippled like water.

Joker and Skull were able to land just fine, Joker rolling on the ground while Seiten caught his master on the way down, but Queen and Panther were not so lucky. Queen flipped in the air, a motion caused by trying to step back, her momentum carrying over as she was launched into the air, landing on her back. Panther, on the other hand, landed face-first from a failed attempt to roll like Joker, sliding along the ground a bit before sliding into Queen.

“Bleh, I have the taste of metal in my mouth,” Panther said as she got up, pulling Queen to her feet.

“That’s what you have to say?” Queen looked on in surprise, as if she couldn’t believe that was the first thing out of her teammate’s mouth from sliding on the floor.

“Well, it’s not like I’ve taken harder hits,” she replied, rubbing her face to check for blood.

“And while it’s nice that they never fight at full strength, a boost for myself is always appreciated,” Panther finished, a smile on her face when she saw there was no shine on her outfit.

“Now, where are you guys!” she shouted, looking to see where the boys were.

“We’re here!” Skull shouted, pulling Panther’s attention as he rode in on Seiten’s cloud while Joker ran up, sounds of frustration coming from Piggytron.

“I guess experience really does show with you guys,” Queen said, turning to face a shaking Piggytron.

“My turn,” Joker said, as a familiar sphere of darkness started to form in Arsène’s hands, where he turned to Skull.

A knowing grin surrounded Skull as he gave Joker a nod, a red aura surrounding him a few seconds later.

“Eigon!”

The ball of darkness smashed into the metal ball, as the screeching sound of metal separating could be heard.

“What, what do you think you’re doing!?” Kaneshiro screech rang through the room, as he crawled out of the top of Piggytron.

“Can we hit him?” Queen asked, her revolver materializing in her hands.

“Can you?” Joker responded as Kaneshiro seemed to be adjusting himself.

“If you called Piggytron a pig and meant to call me one as well!” Kaneshiro shouted, making the Thieves look up as Piggytron’s moved its body sideways, its legs moved into its body.

“I’ll tear you all to shreds!”

“SUPER VIP FORM!!”

“Wha-. Is that for real?” Mona asked, watching as Piggytron started to spin, Fox standing next to him with an equally impressed look on his face.

“Fascinating, isn’t? If I knew where it was heading, I would take out my sketchbook to draw this spectacle,” Fox said, raising his hands to portion off the spinning ball of metal as the sound of Queen’s revolver went off.

“Don’t actually start drawing. If that thing flies into this direction, I’m not pulling you out of the way because you wanted to draw.”

“I’m well aware of that. An artist who stands before a charging train to draw it is a dead one,” Fox said, though he continued to mutter about how if you knew how the train looked and still felt that they couldn’t draw it coming head on, that they were missing the point of being an artist.

After the second round was shot and no visible hit was made on Kaneshiro, Queen put her revolver away, looking to Joker for guidance.

Watching the spinning Piggytron seemed to have left Joker in awe, and seeing that Queen had missed both of her shots, an idea was starting to form in his head.

“Flaming Thunder, keep it light,” he said eventually, as Panther and Skull nodded, Seiten and Carmen coming forward.

“Agi!”

“Zio!”

As the fireball flew forward, the bolt of electricity caught up, surrounding the flames as it got closer to the target.

Watching as it was about to make contact, the fireball disappeared into nothing, as the sound of Piggytron spinning was the only thing that could be heard.

“No way,” Skull said quietly, watching as it seemed like the spinning had gotten faster all of a sudden.

“I figured,” Joker said, turning to his team as a familiar trio of spheres formed in a pair of floating hands.

“Its spinning is dispersing most of the damage it takes and guiding shots away from Kaneshiro,” he explained, before the spheres flew forward, hitting Piggytron without a problem.

“But debuffs seem to work just fine.”

A frustrated growl could be heard from Kaneshiro, as he glared down at Joker.

“What do you know?!” he shouted, seemingly irked that his trick had been figured out. “Get ‘em Piggytron!!”

“Spread!” Joker shouted, making the Thieves scatter as Panther jumped onto Johanna, holding onto Queen for dear life as Skull flew up on Seiten’s cloud.

Turning around to face his backliners, Joker took his pistol out and shot above their heads, alerting them to the oncoming danger.

Hearing Piggytron start to move, Joker turned around and faced it racing towards him.

He couldn’t run.

It was for the first time, right then and there, Joker panicked in battle.

He knew that he wasn’t going to outrun Piggytron, and after the incident with Kamoshida, he knew that there was nothing he could do to stop the attack from hitting him.

From what he observed with the combo attack that Skull and Panther had performed as well, the spin was strong enough to disperse an attack. Even if it was a weak attack, the idea that it could stop something by just going fast made him fear being pulled into its path even if it missed him, with the chance of it hitting him if rebounded off the walls.

Trying to figure out what he was supposed to do, Joker missed the sudden boxing glove that smacked him in the cheek, sending him flying away from Piggytron’s path as he skidded across the metal floor.

Not a few milliseconds later, Piggytron flew by where Joker had stood, smashing into the vault walls with a large amount of force, breaking many of the safe locks on impact.

Lying on his back, Joker looked up to see Zorro fading away, looking down at him with a salute before disappearing.

“Ah, that was close!” Mona’s shout pulled Joker’s attention towards the ‘cat,’ who seemed exhausted.

“We can see something like that coming, take care of yourself a bit more! You’re the heart of this team, you know!”

Looking around, Joker noticed that Queen and Panther were racing towards him, worry on their faces as Skull was right behind them, a few recovery items in his hands while a green glow surrounded Panther’s.

Thinking about what Mona said for a bit, Joker chuckled as he got up, looking towards his team members who visibly relaxed upon seeing him stand.

“Dude, are you okay?” Skull asked as he made it to Joker’s side, Queen making a turn to line up with them.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said, looking back to see Mona suddenly less worried about Joker and freaking out over something where Piggytron had hit the wall.

“Fox?” Joker asked, wondering if something had happened to him.

“He’s fine. I saw him on my way down,” Skull said, making Joker relax upon hearing so, Queen and Panther pulling up to them as Joker turned to look back at Piggytron.

“Still, what are we going to do about that last attack?” he asked now that everyone had gathered around him, exchanging glances with Queen to see if they could figure something out.

As they sat there in silence, ignoring a cackling Kaneshiro who seemed satisfied with the fear he installed in the Thieves, Skull was the first to break the silence. “Dude, is Mona okay? He looks like he’s going to hyperventilate,” he asked, making the team look back.

Fox looked back at them with a look of concern as small items started to fly around in the air, with Joker’s eyes following them, looking to see what they were.

“Oh, what’s wrong? Scared and want to run?” Kaneshiro mocked, continuing to laugh as Joker looked back with an annoyed look on his face.

“Queen, Panther, keep him busy. Run and gun. Two rounds per trigger,” he said, nods coming from the two as Johana formed, roaring to life as she carried her mistress and Panther off, while Joker turned back to his team.

“I think I know how we get past his spinning attack.”

As he tried to put everything that was falling out of the safes into the pocket Joker had given him, Mona was sifting through everything, tossing items to the side that he thought bore no value.

“Oh, oh, this is glorious,” he mewed, constantly appraising items and tossing them into the pocket in a flash, as Fox could only look down in concern.

Seemingly trying to say something, feeling the presence of something approach made him turn around, hands on his sword as he expected Shadows.

Relaxing upon the sight of Skull and Joker, Fox looked back at Mona, who seemed unaware that anyone was approaching.

“Yo, cat,” Skull started, trying to see if Mona would turn around.

No response.

“He’s really in it,” Joker said, bending over to pick the ‘cat’ up.

“Wha, no~~!!” Mona whined, looking down in dismay at all the items that kept dropping down from the safes.

“It’s perfect; we could take all of this and… Oh, hey Joker,” Mona said after he broke out of his stupor.

“You can keep digging for items if you want, but give me the most powerful you could find,” Joker said, as Fox and Skull looked at him with confusion, while Mona looked on in despair.

“Do you want to have Panther waiting or not?”

As Johanna’s engine was at a slight lull, Panther leaned onto Queen, her gun disappearing after she emptied her final round.

“Are the boys done yet?” she asked, tightening her grip as the engine started to grow louder.

“I hope they are; I can’t attack safely with you attached to my back,” Queen responded as Johanna made a tight turn around Piggytron, trying to stay out of the robot’s line of sight.

With a sound of frustration coming from Piggytron, Panther and Queen braced themselves for another attack to launch them into the air, when screeching metal was heard.

“Gah!” Kaneshiro shouted, drawing the girl’s attention away from the robot and towards the cloud that was racing towards them.

“About time,” Queen huffed, zooming towards the cloud as Seiten came to a stop, disappearing after Joker and Skull had jumped off.

“Sorry for the wait,” Joker said, catching Panther as she jumped off the zooming Persona as Queen made a sharp turn and skidded to a halt, Johanna disappearing under her feet as she stopped.

“Did you figure out what to do?” Queen asked as she jogged into position, her revolver in hand as she stood at attention.

“Yep. We can’t keep him from going VIP or whatever, but there’s an easy way to make him stop,” Joker grinned, holding something up into the air.

“What! That’s my stuff!” Kaneshiro shouted, Piggytron starting to turn to the side again as Kaneshiro clambered out.

“Well, it’s a nice Soma indeed,” Joker said, tossing the item into the air.

“Would be a shame if it broke on impact.”

Realizing what he was planning on doing, Queen gave a predatory grin as Piggytron quickly changed course, turning to face the Thieves as the Soma reached its peak.

“If I say it’s mine, I mean IT!” Kaneshiro shouted from atop of Piggytron, crawling into the small slot in its as the lock opened.

“And score,” Joker said, Arsène taking form as Eigon started to take shape.

As the Soma was about halfway down from its fall, Piggytron started to suck the air around it in, pulling the Soma in, though it pulled in a sphere of darkness along with it.

It took a few seconds, but the sound of metal tearing itself apart could be heard again with Kaneshiro scrambling out of Piggytron, sparks flying behind him as he fled.

Looking on in satisfaction, Joker looked at Kaneshiro, who landed on his face after one of the eyes of Piggytron blew up, ending his shaky flight as his wings couldn’t keep up.

“I assume it was a worthy investment,” Joker said, looking down while the Shadow slowly lifted himself back up, a look of annoyance on his face.

“Investment, huh?” Kaneshiro huffed, tugging on his suit as he stood back up, hatred flowing from his compound eyes.

“I’ll show you my real power, doing it myself with the power of cash!”

With a snap of his fingers, a swarm of flies descended from the ceiling as two fly Shadows in suits took the stage next to Kaneshiro.

“Behold the best that money can buy!” he grinned, as a larger one smacked its shields together, trying to pass off as intimidating while the small one smacked its baton in its hand, eying Thieves as it flew around.

“Well, I figured it would be this,” Queen grumbled, revolver spinning in her hand. “So much for doing it on his own.”

“I thought something like a mech suit would show up,” Joker said, promptly getting smacked in the back of the head by Skull.

“Common man, we don’t need those kinds of jokes right now.”

Stretching his neck, Joker just shrugged as a new Persona took to the stage.

“Let’s see how well they take a hit,” Joker said, a grin forming on his face as he reached for his mask.

“Come, Leanan Sidhe!”

She was one of the new Personas that appeared in the compendium after entering Kaneshiro’s Palace properly. She was a woman with long blond hair, dressed in a long purple gown as she held two small metal rods.

“Mapsiodyne!”

Responding to Joker’s shout, Leanan twisted her rods as circles of psychic energy surrounded the three flys, watching as they looked at the encircling energy approach.

“Heh.”

As she tugged on her rods, as if to pull them apart, the circles of energy enclosed on her targets, as the fairy giggled once she was sure that her targets were hit.

“Behold, the true power of cash!”

Looking at the results of his attack, Joker could only click his tongue as Leanan Sidhe disappeared, mask forming on his face.

Of the three targets, only two of them seemed to have taken damage. The smaller fly was unable to keep itself flying.

The larger fly seemed somewhat damaged, but it looked like someone had only thrown a pebble at it, brushing off some dust as it looked at Joker, seemingly asking if that was all.

But the all-important target, Kaneshiro, seemed to have taken no damage, grinning as he looked at the Thieves.

“See! Nothing is impossible with money!” he laughed, bending over as he pointed a finger at them.

“Well, I can take it down,” Joker said, looking at the big fly as if his time were limited.

Kaneshiro looked at Joker as if he said he could walk on water, and he looked at the large fly while snapping at Joker, prompting the fly to attack.

Nodding in confirmation, the fly stepped forward, knocking its shields together as it lunged at Joker.

Kaneshiro watched as Joker was sent flying with a wicked grin, the charging tackle from the fly as he was sent flying, rolling on the ground as smashed into a wall.

Except that’s not what happened.

Joker stood as he was, mask still present on his face as the fly looked confused as he kept punching at him.

“What?!” Kaneshiro shouted, foaming at the mouth when he realized that the attack didn’t work.

“Man, even knowing that you can do that, it still makes me nervous,” Panther huffed, making Queen glance around, looking like she had missed a joke.

Looking at the fly, Joker grinned as he pulled his mask off, revealing a man made of folded paper.

“Shiki-Ouji! Psiodyne!”

Once again, a circle of psychic energy surrounded Kaneshiro, making the fly snap back into position to protect Kaneshiro.

“It’s a simple matter, Kaneshiro,” Joker smirked, looking at his target as the rest of the Thieves formed up behind him.

“Even without attacks like the last one, I can keep forcing him away. Your little friends can’t hurt me, and these guys,” he said, looking behind him. “Can make up for my lack of damage. As proof.”

Turning to Skull, Joker pumped his arm. Nodding in response, Skull pulled out his shotgun and blasted the smaller fly. After the amount of damage it took from Joker’s multi-target attack, it couldn’t keep standing disappearing into mist.

“What’s the plan now, money bags? Buy us off to walk away?”

Shaking as he stood, Kaneshiro looked like he was about to explode.

“You know what! I’ll crush you all!! This amount of money can do anything!”

The Thieves looked up as the vault’s ceiling started to open, with the layout of the Palace keenly placed in Queen’s mind as she searched for an alternate path.

“Joker! He’s going to use money from the laundering room!”

As Kaneshiro started to laugh maniacally, Joker tried to think about what they could do.

His mind racing, he turned to Skull, switching his Persona to Arsène as his black wings flapped, pulling Queen and Panther towards him.

“Go pick up Fox and Mona, and head straight up. If we act fast, we can get over all the money and come back down to finish the job,” Joker said as Arsène held onto him, concerned looks coming from the girls.

“Can you make it?” Skull asked as Seiten came forward, picking up his master, who looked back for confirmation.

“We can. It’s just if this works or not.”

As Fox and Mona looked down in awe, Mona wondered how Joker managed to think of something like this in such a short period.

Johanna was riding up the vault walls, not falling off as Arsène pushed against her, his wings flapping mightily to maintain balance. At the same time, Carmen held onto everyone, the men in her grasps holding onto Joker while she put one hand for Johanna and the other to hold her mistress.

“Can they make it?” Fox asked, as the rumbling sound of money could be heard from a distance, looking around to see where it could come from.

“They have to, with a plan like that,” Skull said, looking around to see if there was a tether point Joker could jump to. He may as well, figuring that was the next part of the plan, moving away from the hole as he looked at another hole that started to form in the wall.

“Common, you can make it,” he grumbled under his breath, as the rumbling sound started to grow louder and louder.

Just as the gleam of gold could be made out from the hole, the sound of an engine revving was heard, making the Thieves look to see Johanna soar into the sky, a cry of exhilaration coming from Queen as she realized that they did it.

As Johanna disappeared, Mona nearly let a cry of distress out before Carmen caught Queen, the hand that had held onto Johanna snatching her. At the same time, Arsène continued to soar up, before diving down to catch them, hooking his arms under Carmen’s as he glided down towards the ground.

Landing next to the Safe Room, Panther flagged Skull down, sitting down as everyone watched the money flow overhead from the hole like a burst dam, pouring into the opened vault.

The cascade carried on for a few minutes, the roar of flowing money being the only sound that they could hear, but it eventually stopped, slowing to a trickle by the time the vault had filled.

“Shall we see how much is left?” Joker asked, letting some time pass before getting up, making his way towards the opened vault with an expecting look on his face.

By the time the rest of the Thieves caught up, Joker had jumped into the hole, grapple firing away as he made his way down the walls, Shiki-Ouji by his side as he landed on the ground.

Standing in the middle of the vault, Joker watched as Kaneshiro was in a panic, seemingly realizing what he had done as he looked from side to side.

“No, no, no!” he shouted, stomping on the ground. “I’ll have money again! So come back!”

As he walked forward, Kaneshiro glanced up, thinking that someone had come back, but the disheartened look on his face said otherwise.

“So, you enjoy your spending spree?” Joker asked, Arsène coming forward, a humming sound filling the room.

“My money,” was all that Kaneshiro said, looking around as he hoped for something to cling to.

Smiling as he watched, Joker took a step forward, knife twirling in his hands as Arsène’s smile matched his master.

“It’s over.”

Stabbing Kaneshiro in the gut, Joker watched as the fat Shadow stumbled around, looking in disbelief as he held onto his stomach.

“No, so long as I have cash,” he mumbled, stumbling towards Piggytron, who survived the falling money, as darkness surrounded Arsène’s hands.

As Kaneshiro made it in, his sigh of relief audible to the outside, one last Eigon was shot as the humming sound stopped, the Thieves’ footsteps making their way to Joker’s side filling the room.

“Man, why couldn’t you take the elevator?” Ann huffed, watching Piggytron start sparking while Ren just shrugged his shoulders, watching his handiwork.

“No! My Piggytron!!!” was the last thing Kaneshiro said before it exploded.

After the explosion, the Thieves looked to see gold bars standing where Piggytron once was, as Kaneshiro’s normal Shadow belly-flopped onto them.

“No! Not this! This is my money!!” Kaneshiro cried, gripping a gold bar.

“Bullshit!” Makoto shouted, kicking him as she tried to get him off the gold. “You stole it!”

“Is this about the debt?” Kaneshiro asked, looking up as Ryuji stepped up as well, Punished Mjolnir Mk. II slamming into the ground.

“Fine! I’ll forgive it, so let me keep my money!”

“Fine?” Ryuji asked, slamming his club hard against the ground. “It still sounds like you’re on your high pork!”

There was a slight pause among the Thieves as they all looked at Ryuji, ignoring the crying Kaneshiro.

“Come on, I’m a victim too!” Kaneshiro cried, as Makoto and Ren started to move gold bars, as Ryuji looked around, wondering why everyone went quiet.

“That’s bullshit, money and people you buy off aren’t the same as a friend group!” Ann said, pulling Morgana off a gold bar.

“You’re not the only one who had to deal with being labeled,” Ryuji eventually said, taking a gold bar.

As the pile grew smaller, Kaneshiro started to grin.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked, a chuckle slowly leaving him.

“What?”

It was a universal response among the Thieves, turning to face Kaneshiro like he asked the dumbest question possible.

“Don’t you see all the potential? These Palaces, this world, you could be doing so much more, like him,” Kaneshiro continued to chuckle.

“What are you talking about?” Ren asked, drawing out his pistol.

“Ren!”

“Oh, going to kill me?” Kaneshiro asked, his laugh getting harder.

“Do it. It won’t matter anyway. That Black Mask fucker, he’ll kill all of you if run into him by chance.”

With a bang, the Shadow suddenly grabbed his knee, howling in pain as Ren got closer.

“What do you know?”

“Heh, I’d never tell, even if I knew the answer,” Kaneshiro continued to laugh, clutching his knee as his body started to fade away.

“Just remember that you're nothing to him. Nothing.”

And those were the last words that Junya 'Bael' Kaneshiro said as his Shadow self, laughing at the looming misfortune that would befall the Thieves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to AProxyNation.   
> Check out their P5 works, 'i might never come down,' (https://archiveofourown.org/works/24615556) and 'thieves' tools,' (https://archiveofourown.org/works/24893197).  
> A Recollections chapter next week, along with a Love is a Dance chapter if I get to it


	4. Cognitive Wakaba

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, no Recollections update this week. I was too busy laughing over the fact that Nintendo broke Twitter on Thursday and watching how the internet reacted for most of Saturday.  
> Also, thanks to MushroomFusion245 over on FF, co-author of Phantom Memories.

As they walked through the green glow, the Phantom Thieves looked around at the relatively empty room where the Treasure should’ve been.

“Really?” Skull asked as he looked around, seeing the lack of shinies, “This is all there is?”

“Now, now,” Queen said, prompting Skull to make a face. “That’s not what we’re here for.”

“Yeah, yeah, we’re here for the Treasure,” he moped, looking around as there seemed to be nothing to see.

“Where would the treasure be?” he asked, looking down towards his feet for the black cat, who’s only visible trait was the green reflecting off his white fur.

“The Treasure should be in here,” Mona said, made his way towards something that was in the middle of the room.

“Is that a coffin?” Fox asked, his artistic eye taking a look now that he was closer.

“Eh, whatever,” Skull shrugged, stepping up to coffin. “Let’s just grab the treasure and get out of here.”

Giving their shoulders a stretch as they readied themselves to give the lid a push, Skull and Fox got about halfway between their arms and the lid when a sudden scream made everyone in the room pause.

“Wha! What was that!?” Panther shouted before another scream cut through the air, followed by part of the roof collapsing.

“Spread!” Joker shouted, kicking everyone into combat mode with the command. “Palace ruler incoming!”

As they spread themselves apart, the Thieves waited with bated breath as more of the roof continued to collapse around them, before a single eye could be seen looking in.

“ **FUUTTTAAAABBBBBAAAAAA!!!!!!!** ” the eye screamed, making everyone flinch at the harsh tone, as more of the roof collapsed.

“That’s not Futaba!” Fox shouted as he avoided some of the falling blocks, the hole in the roof triggering a domino effect as more and more of the roof started to collapse around the Thieves.

With their eyes adjusting to the sudden light now pouring in as the roof no longer existed, they could finally see what had knocked the roof down. It was a massive sphinx, one eye alone was easily the size of a Thief, and it wore similarly massive glasses, its black frames matching the short black hair on its head.

With another scream, the sphinx flapped its wings, its white contrasting with the red breastplate as the winds pushed the Thieves back.

“If it’s not Futaba, what the hell is that?!” Skull shouted as he braced himself, barely keeping his footing.

“It’s a cognition!” Mona screamed, barely holding on to the floor as the wind started to get harsher. “It’s a monster that Futaba’s mind created!”

“Then what are we…”

“Watch out!” Skull shouted, taking Queen by surprise when she noticed that a pillar was falling in her direction.

Before anyone could even respond, the pillar shattered, small pieces of rock falling around her as everyone wondered what had happened.

“Battle positions!” Joker’s voice rang out, gathering everyone’s attention to him as Arsène stood behind him, the light glow of darkness fading from his hands as he put it onto his master’s shoulders, his black wings flapping furiously to hold him in place against the wind.

“ **DO NOT APPROACH THE PHAROAH’S TOMB!!** ” the sphinx roared as she started to circle the Thieves, making it difficult for them to have a defined group of four. “ **MISFORTUNE WILL FALL UPON YOU!!** ” was the last thing she said before swooping down towards them.

“Guard!”

The command came not a moment too soon, as the sphinx’s massive paws hit all the Thieves as she swiped at them, sliding them back as they took the hit.

After coming to a stop, Joker could feel his body shaking, arms somewhat numb from the impact he just took.

Looking around to see how everyone else was doing, Panther and Mona were struggling to get on their feet. That wasn’t something too surprising to him, they were the two with the lowest physical endurance among them, but his heart dropped when he saw that Queen and Skull were in the same boat.

Ignoring his ability to change his skills as it was needed, those two were the most durable among his teammates, and if they were struggling to stand…

Reaching into his pocket, Joker looked to his sides as his team was sprawled out around him, mind racing if this was the best time to use such an item. He was feeling it up in his pocket as his mind tried to think.

It was a Bead Chain.

There were only two of them in his pocket, extras that Mona had managed to nab from the vault in Kaneshiro’s Palace before he rode up with Skull to avoid the downpour of money that would’ve crushed them all, but he was hesitant to use it.

If they were forced to use their most potent healing item after the very first attack of the enemy, how long would they be able to stand?

Hearing the sphinx scream again, Joker bit his lip and pulled the chain out, smashing it against the ground as he reached for his mask, Arsène appearing behind him in full.

“Eigaon!” Joker shouted as the Beads started to take effect, the ball of dark energy flying towards the sphinx as everyone stood up around him.

And it was to their absolute horror that the sphinx didn’t even flinch upon taking the hit, even grinning as she continued to fly around.

Even Joker was somewhat shaken, looking up in disbelief as he fired off a second volley, hoping that the sphinx was acting tough.

With the grin turning into a sneer, the sphinx flapped her wings, dissipating the balls of darkness as everyone froze on the spot, unable to comprehend what just happened. They all got their answer when something hit them, sending everyone sliding against the floor.

It was a massive blow, knocking Skull and Panther out, while everyone else barely hung on, struggling to get up off the floor.

Joker was not faring much better, falling to a knee as he watched the grin return to the sphinx before it shot up into the air, a sudden sense of dread filling him.

Reaching for his mask, Joker slowly made his way towards Mona, pulling it off as a woman dressed in white appeared behind him, getting the cat off the ground after a brief green glow surrounded him.

“Joker?” Mona asked, watching as his leader made his way towards Skull and Panther.

“Heal Yusuke and Makoto, and then we run,” Joker said, the woman in white appearing again, seemingly praying before Skull and Panther got up, looking to see that Queen and Fox were still close to the ground.

“Ru-run away?” Mona asked, a look of disbelief on his face. “Bu-but the Treasure, …”

“Did you see what happened after we all got knocked to the ground?” Joker asked.

Looking back up to his leader, Mona grit his teeth as he shook his head, making his way over to Fox and Queen, Zorro standing behind him quietly.

“The sphinx shot up into the air, and if it’s anything like the last attack, no-one is going to survive.”

Listing to the conversation, Panther had a look of despair on her face, turning to Morgana.

“Can you tell when it’ll come back down?”

“No, there are limits to what I can do,” the cat said as Queen and Fox got up, looking around as a shadow was starting to form on the horizon.

Ignoring the uncomfortable feeling of stone beneath her feet, Futaba was walking around in awe as she looked at the moving numbers and text, fascination written all over her face.

“So, this is inside my heart,” she said, eyes flying back and forth between moving text. “I didn’t think it would be like this.”

Taking a few more steps, a screen dropped down before her, startling Futaba as she fell backward.

“Wha?” she asked before a girl phased down in front of her.

“Do you remember?” the girl asked, making Futaba look between it and the screen.

“Wha, what are you?” Futaba asked, suddenly unsure of what she was presented with.

“That matters not,” the girl said, standing closer to Futaba. “We are one, which means you should know what this is.”

Looking up at the drawing, Futaba saw the same girl seated on a throne, as three men dressed in suits with bird heads came to her, the man closest to her holding out a piece of paper.

“This,” Futaba started slowly, looking away from the girl who gave her a vacant stare.

“This is the suicide note. The men in suits read it when Mom died.”

“That is correct,” the girl responded, gesturing to the image as a new one took its place.

“This is,” she started, continuing to give Futaba a blank stare.

“This,” Futaba hesitated again, looking up at the girl who now gave her a disappointed to look.

“This is when Mom jumped in front of that car.”

“That’s right,” the girl responded, no emotion in her reaction as she gestured to the image as a new one fell into its place. “Now, the next.”

“No,” Futaba said quietly, squatting on the floor as she tried her best to avoid looking at the new image.

“Don’t run,” the girl said, her disappointed gaze hardening.

“I thought you made your mind up when you talked to the Phantom Thieves,” she continued, her gaze softening back to disappointment.

“O-okay,” Futaba answered, shifting around a bit. “I’ll look.”

Getting up, Futaba looked at the image, seeing the girl before her tugging on a woman’s clothes. Said woman was holding a stack of papers and had an angry look on her face as if she was yelling at the girl.

“I-it’s me complaining,” Futaba answered after a brief silence, looking towards the floor. “Mom scolded me for bothering her.”

“Yes,” the girl answered back, nodding her head in agreement.

“I-I knew it,” Futaba cried, putting her head in her hands. “It was me who killed Mom. I was a b-bad daughter. I weighed her down, a, and she hated me for it.”

“It’s just like I remember.”

“Are you sure?” the girl asked, watching as Futaba rubbed her eyes from the oncoming tears.

No response.

‘Hey,” the girl continued, but Futaba continued to cry.

‘SMACK’

Taken somewhat by surprise, Futaba looked up at the girl as her hand came back to her side, disappointment still lingering in her eyes.

“Remember everything. Don’t avert your eyes,” the girl continued, making Futaba wonder if her gaze got slightly more intense.

“When did this happen?” the girl asked, her gaze seemingly pressuring her to remember.

“I-it was before Mom died,” Futaba answered, looking away from the girl.

“I whined about wanting to go on a family trip, but Mom scolded me and said no.”

“Was that all?” the girl asked, nodding her head in agreement.

“Mom, Mom said,” Futaba stalled, trying to remember. “‘I’m too busy right now. I need to finish my cognitive research as soon as possible.’”

“And what did you do?” the girl asked, eyes hardening again.

“I threw a tantrum. Told her that she thought her research was more important than me,” Futaba answered, avoiding her eyes with the girl again. “That’s when she scolded me.”

“And after that?” the girl asked, stepping in closer to make Futaba look at her. “What did she say afterward.”

“Uh…”

As she looked to the side, Futaba had a look of recognition in her eyes. “Did she say, ‘My research is almost over. Once it’s finished, we can go wherever you like. I’m sorry that I’ve left you alone for so long. Please try to understand though.’”

“‘This research is really important,’” Futaba continued, her eyes widening as more and more came back. “‘I need to complete it, even if it costs me my life.’”

“Did she hate you?” the girl asked, the intensity somewhat disappearing in her eyes.

“She, she didn’t?” Futaba hesitated to say, before the screen started to glow, startling her.

“Wha, she smiled?”

Futaba buckled as she looked at the new image, clutching her head as she went down to the ground. “Ah, my head… It hurts…” she cried.

“What’s real?”

“Your memory is…” the girl started to say, but started to float away, unseen by Futaba as she continued to cry.

Before she could get any further in her pool of tears, the room suddenly shook, with a loud scream following soon after.

“Wha, what was that?” she asked, slowly rising as she looked up.

“It, it’s calling me?”

The roaring of the wind seemed rather distant to the Phantom Thieves as they looked on in disbelief as Joker lay against the coffin, his arms twisted in a position that was clearly not natural.

As they were all regrouping to run and come up with a plan to nab the Treasure, Joker and Mona were the first to realize that the sphinx was coming down to dive-bomb them.

Mona was the one to make his distress known, prompting everyone to turn and see. When they turned to look at what it was, their hearts sank at the realization that it was coming in way too fast for them to be able to successfully escape in time and find a chance to take the Treasure.

Seeing that it was the case, in what could only be described as a gut reaction, Joker summoned Arsène and had his Persona carry him into the air, hoping to cast a barrier of some form and repel whatever attack would be coming. Seeing this reckless move, the sphinx grinned as she changed her dive angle, forcing a burst of sudden and powerful burst of wind crashing down onto Joker.

This took him by surprise, as evident when Arsène disappeared and his mask reformed as he fell, seemingly unable to take the sudden burst of wind pushing down against him.

That was bad enough on its own, but the sphinx decided that she wasn’t done making an example out of Joker, so she resumed her dive and swatted Joker towards his friends.

Joker was only just aware enough to raise his arms to enter a Guard position, but the force of the impact was more than he could take.

As he was slammed against the exposed pyramid floor, the Thieves all heard the audible sound of something go ‘CRUNCH’ before he was flung past them and smashed into the coffin.

“Joker!”

It was a frantic scramble, Mona and Panther casting every healing spell they could use in a desperate attempt to keep him alive; Skull, Fox, and Queen had entered a mad frenzy firing off every round their guns against the sphinx before changing to their attack spells.

“GODDAMNIT!!!” Skull shouted as he smashed his foot into the floor, the anger visible in his eyes as the sphinx continued to circle around them, her sneering grin only working to frustrate the boy even further.

“We can’t hit it for shit!”

Queen seemed equally frustrated, looking like she was looking for a sizable chunk of a pillar to throw when a flash of orange caught her sight.

“Futaba?”

Prompting a reaction from everyone, they all turned in the direction Queen was looking at. The surprise they felt was enough that they missed the part where Joker opened his eyes, mask fading as the lady in white came once more, cradling his head as a green glow surrounded him.

“Wha-what are you doing here?” Queen asked, speaking for everyone as Futaba just shrugged.

“The person themselves coming into the Palace? If that happens,” Morgana started to think, trying to figure out what it could possibly do, when the sphinx shrieked, pulling everyone’s attention to her.

“That’s,” Futaba started, walking forward a bit before she clutched her head.

“YOU KILLED HER!” a voice yelled at Futaba, a pair of feet in front of her eyes.

“No…” she whined.

“WHY DON’T YOU SAY SOMETHING!!” a different voice screamed as a different pair showed up outside her line of sight.

“IT’S YOUR FAULT!!” Another joined.

“I-it’s my fault…” Futaba cried, falling to the ground.

“It’s my fault that Mom died.”

“ **THAT’S RIGHT!!** ” the sphinx screamed, startling the Thieves as they turned to face her. “ **YOU KILLED ME!!** ”

“Wait,” Fox said, disbelief evident in his voice. “Is that monster her mother?”

“It must be her guilt and desires twisted her cognition of her mother.” A sad look came over Morgana’s face as he put the pieces together, looking back at Futaba. “The wish that her mother is alive got mixed in with all the jeers.”

“ **YOU WERE NOTHING BUT A DEMON WHO STOOD IN MY WAY!** ” the sphinx, now identified as Wakaba, screamed. “ **I WISH THAT YOU WERE NEVER BORN!!!!** ”

As Futaba clung to her head in despair, Queen walked up to her as Wakaba continued to scream.

“ **I COULD’VE FINISHED AND PRESENTED MY RESEARCH WITHOUT HAVING TO WASTE TIME ON YOU!**

 **I POURED MY HEART AND SOUL INTO IT!! IT WOULD’VE BEEN THE DISCOVERY OF THE CENTURY!!** ”

“What is she talking about?” Queen asked, keeping her hands on Futaba’s shoulders.

“If it’s about cognitive psience,” Morgana looked to the side, trying to figure out what it could mean.

“ **YOU’RE GOING TO DIE HERE!**

 **THERE’S NO MEANING IN YOUR LIFE! NO ONE NEEDS YOU!** ”

“No-nobody cares about me…”

“‘I never should’ve had Futaba…’ ‘She was such a bother…’ It seems like you caused your mother a lot of trouble, didn’t you? Surely it was some kind of maternity neurosis.”

“Ah,” Futaba started to cry, unable to look up at any of her hallucinations.

“Fuutaabbaa---” a different voice started to echo in Futaba’s head, making her curl up even more.

“No!”

“Hey! We can’t just stand around here!” Skull shouted, looking back as the sphinx was right on top of them, leering down at Futaba.

“So, because she thinks that she killed her mother,” Queen started, piecing together parts that Mona had laid out, “and she thinks that she deserves to die, she created a Palace where her mother wants her dead?”

“Futaba, look!” Panther shouted, joining Queen as she ran up to Futaba’s side. “There’s no way that monster is your mother! It’s just an illusion that you created!”

“B-but,” Futaba tried to retort, unable to look up.

“She never abused you, did she!?” Queen asked. “Boss told us! That she tried her best to raise you on her own!”

“Is this not a false memory imprinted on you?” Fox asked, keeping his eyes on the cognition.

“A, a false memory?” Futaba asked, briefly looking up before immediately glancing back down.

“You caused your mother to destroy all of her work, Futaba,” a man said, standing where she had just peaked.

“She worked so hard on it, and you just destroyed it,” the man continued, looking down with disgust. “She lost her mind because of you.”

“M-Mom, I,” Futaba started, now twitching uncontrollably.

“So this is it?” a voice said, pulling the Thieves’ attention.

“Her Shadow!”

“Futaba Sakura, remember!” she shouted, before lunging at Futaba.

“Stop her!” Queen shouted, but the Shadow dove into Futaba, disappearing from sight.

As she walked around, Shadow Futaba let out a sigh.

The top of the pyramid was restored, the same green glow emanating as she looked at her physical self.

“You are the reason she committed suicide,” she started, her disappointed look returning. “You were getting in the way of her research.”

“Why did you think that?”

“…te.”

“What was that?” her Shadow asked, getting closer to Futaba.

“Because of the note,” she answered, glancing up as she answered.

“That’s right,” her Shadow answered, getting even closer. “The men in black suits read it to you, and what was on it?”

“All of her complaints,” Futaba answered.

“About?” her Shadow asked, glaring at the answer.

“Me,” Futaba responded.

“Yes,” her Shadow said, her gaze slowly softening as she stood right in front of Futaba. “The shock and pain lead you to avert your eyes.”

“But they kept reading it aloud to your relatives,” her Shadow continued, the look of disgust not directed at Futaba.

“Think hard, was the note real?”

This got her a glance from Futaba.

“Would the mother who you loved so much have written that?” her Shadow said, anger slowly building in her voice. “Did she ever say such horrible things to you?”

“No,” Futaba said, slowly rising to her feet.

“No! She wouldn’t! She scolded me when I had tantrums, but she cared for me!”

“Then of the suicide note?” her Shadow asked.

“A total lie!”

“Yes!” her Shadow shouted, anger slowly forming on her face. “They used you! They forged that note and placed her death on you!”

“They trampled all over you! Get mad!” she continued, pointing at Futaba. “Be mad at those rotten adults who thought they could get away with it!”

“I couldn’t face myself at the moment or deal with Mom’s death, but why did they have to yell at me!?” Futaba shouted, anger also becoming visible in her face.

As the Thieves looked on in worry, Futaba slowly got to her feet, startling everyone.

“Ah~” she moaned, somewhat shaky as she stood.

“Futaba!”

‘ _What denies you is an illusion._ ’

The soft voice took everyone by surprise, looking around to see what was coming next.

‘ _A curse put upon you by the heartless… You knew from the very beginning, and yet, you cowered in fear…_ ’

“I, I knew, but,” Futaba tried to retort, holding onto her head as she struggled to stay standing.

“ **IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT!** ” Wakaba screamed down, making the Thieves turn to face the sphinx, still glaring down at Futaba.

‘ _Will you die as you are told? Will you obey? Cursed words spat out by a seething illusion? Or the truth within your own soul?_ ’ the same voice from earlier asked, as Wakaba seemed to panic at the growing power it held.

” **IT WAS YOUR FAULT!** ” she screamed, pushing against the pyramid as she looked down at Futaba. “ **IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!** ”

“I, I won’t let these lies deceive me!” Futaba shouted, holding her ground as Wakaba looked down at her. “I won’t be lead astray by other voices either!”

“I’m going to trust my own eyes and heart and distinguish the truth from the lies!”

“You’re not my mom!” Futaba shouted, glaring back up at the sphinx. “You’re just a monster that fake created by those assholes!”

“I, I,” Futaba stuttered, trying to express what she had bottled up for so long. “I’ll never forgive them!”

As if those were the words it was waiting to hear, Futaba’s Shadow rose into the air, shining as it descended higher.

Looking away from the bright light, the Thieves saw a UFO over their head, spinning over Futaba once the light had faded.

“What is that?” Panther shouted as tendrils started to come down.

“Wh-whoa.” It was a relatively calm reaction from Futaba, not fighting as she was carried up into it.

‘ _Contract,_ ’ the voice spoke, illuminating the darkness in the UFO as Futaba started to look around, surrounded by screens and numbers.

‘ _I am thou, thou art I. The forbidden wisdom has been revealed._ ’

“Whoa,” Futaba said, as more and more screens started to show.

‘ _No mysteries. No illusions shall deceive you any longer,_ ’ the voice continued, as Futaba started to enjoy the sudden rush she was feeling.

“Futaba!” Queen shouted, everyone looking as the UFO moved away from them.

“I’m okay!” Futaba’s voice echoed, making the Thieves relax a bit while Wakaba looked enraged.

“Please help me!” she continued, moving towards Joker.

“That needs to go!” she shouted, as light rained down on him.

Realizing that they had forgotten about him, the Thieves rushed him, hoping that he was still alive.

Before someone could reach in to grab him, a ball of darkness shot forward, smacking Wakaba in the face as she screamed in pain.

“Let’s go!” Joker shouted, rushing out of the light with Arsène blazing behind him, seemingly larger than before.

As she clung to her face, Wakaba flew off the pyramid, suddenly rather wary of her foes as a trickle of dark liquid started to run down her cheek.

“ **FUTABA!!!** ” Wakaba screamed as she circled around the Thieves, the same glow of energy pouring down on them as had enveloped Joker. “ **I DIDN’T RAISE YOU TO BE LIKE THAT!! HOW DARE YOU RUN AROUND WITH SUCH AN AWFUL CROWD!!** ”

“ **THE ONLY THING YOU SHOULD BE DOING IS OBEYING MY ORDERS!!** ”

“M-Mom, I.” Futaba was silent for a moment before she answered.

“No, that’s not her,” she said softly, though somewhat audible to the Thieves ears, surprising them as they looked at her UFO.

“You’re just a monster!”

“ **TALKING BACK TO YOUR MOTHER?!** ” Wakaba screamed, anger in her eyes as she glared at the UFO, though now steadily weary of Arsène, still flapping his wings as if to say that he could jump up to her. “ **YOU’VE SPENT TOO MUCH TIME WITH THESE NO-GOOD PUNKS, HAVEN’T YOU!! I’LL CRUSH THEM!!** ”

Shooting up into the air again, the Thieves panicked as they remembered what happened with Joker.

“Wha-what are we supposed to do?” Mona asked, looking at Joker, who seemed to steady himself.

“Don’t worry about it!” Futaba’s voice rang, though she was too far away for them to reasonably hear her. “This is my heart’s world, right? Then being able to bend the rules should be no problem for me!”

As Wakaba descended onto the top of the pyramid, the fear in everyone’s eyes looked up at the diving monster, mere meters away from hitting them. Then she slammed into a barrier, covering the entire top of the pyramid.

There was a sickening sound of limbs being dislocated, as Wakaba screamed in pain as she backed off. “ **YOU GODDAMNED BRATS!!** ” she shouted, slamming her back into the pyramid to realign her forelimbs.

“Now it’s our turn!” Futaba shouted, the UFO stopping behind the Thieves. “I’m summoning the ultimate weapon to the battlefield!”

With a brief glow of green energy, Futaba placed something down and scurried off, leaving the Thieves to look in wonder.

“A ballista?!” Mona shouted, voicing the Thieves’ thoughts.

“Shot it down with this and beat the crap out of it!” Futaba shouted.

“I get it,” Mona said, looking at Joker, who looked at his companions, thinking about who should go.

“Skull! Fox!” he eventually shouted, pulling their attention. “Man the ballista! And stay back!”

Nodding at the command, the two ran back to give the other the formation of four. At the same time, Arsène flapped his wings again, as if daring Wakaba to come closer.

“ **AFTER ALL I DID TO RAISE YOU,** ” Wakaba screamed, looking back at the UFO with unbridled hatred. “ **YOU DARE NEGLECT YOUR MOTHER LIKE THIS!? I AM YOUR MOTHER!! THE ONLY ONE IN THIS WHOLE, AWFUL WORLD!** ”

“Some mother,” Joker said, as Arsène shot a ball of darkness, Wakaba barely avoiding it as she dove down, the fear in her eyes more apparent.

“ **WHAT!?** ” Wakaba shouted, looking down at Joker, who was now steadily climbing up in her irritability chart. “ **WHY DON’T YOU ADMIT IT!?** ” she screeched, as a spiral of ‘ **WHY** ’ echoed around them.

“Mom is gone,” Futaba said, her voice somewhat cracking at admitting so. “No matter how much I wish for her to be with me, it’ll never come true. That’s why I’ll live in the real world, even if she’s not there with me anymore!”

“And I’m going to live my life as free and happy as possible!” she shouted, angering the sphinx even further.

“ **FOR A CHILD TO SURVIVE IN YOUR CRUEL WORLD, THEY NEED A CONCERNED MOTHER FIGURE LIKE ME!!** ” Wakaba shouted, rattling the stone a bit as she roared. “ **UNDERSTAND!!?** ”

“A fake shield is still fake,” Joker shot back, as Arsène hit his mark this time, smashing into the sphinx’s chest.

“ **I,** ” Wakaba stuttered, as if unable to believe what she heard. “ **I’M A FAKE!** ”

“Listen,” Futaba continued, her voice still struggling. “My mom is so precious to me, and I still love her a ton… but you’re not her!” she finally got out, looking at the monster on her screen. “And I’ll never live a life where everything is decided by someone else!”

With a scream of absolute rage, Wakaba turned away from the Thieves, her paw swinging back.

“ **NAUGHT CHILDREN WHO DEFY THEIR PARENTS SHOULD BE PUNISHED!** ” she screamed, swinging at the four Thieves who stood their ground.

“No you’re not!” Futaba shouted, as another barrier formed around the Thieves, smirking as the suddenly terrifying foe was unable to hit them, and seemingly in pain for trying to do so.

“Now! Change the aim of the ballista!” Futaba shouted again, as Skull and Fox pushed against the giant bow, though it seemed that they were the only ones who heard her, as Panther looked back in surprise as she heard the creaking of metal joints.

“Panther!” Mona’s shout brought her back to attention as a paw was over her head, coming down.

“I got you!” Joker shouted, rushing towards her as a barrier started to form in Arsène’s hands.

“Tetrakarn!”

There were seconds to spare, as the barrier flew between Panther and pushed Wakaba back, overpowering her paw as she flew back, eyes full of hatred towards Joker.

“Adjust the vertical alignment!” Futaba shouted again, alerting all the Thieves this time as Fox stood at the back of the ballista lining up the shot while Skull adjusted the height.

“Fire!”

“Alright!” Skull shouted, rushing forward and pushing against the lever that held the bolt in place.

Not a second after the lever clicked, the bolt flew out of the ballista, smashing into the sphinx’s ribs as she cried in pain, losing control of her flight as she landed against the pyramid.

“Hold up!” Futaba shouted, startling the Thieves as they followed the command.

What surprised them was that even though they didn’t surround the sphinx, Wakaba seemed unable to get up, with Joker and Mona looking at each other to make sure that it was still working.

“ **NNNGH!** ” Wakaba groaned in pain, looking at Joker before looking up at the UFO, anger and hatred freely leaking out. “ **HOW DARE YOU! CHILDREN WHO DEFY THEIR MOTHERS SHOULD DIE!!** ”

“Shut up!” Futaba shouted as the Thieves started to glow again, power flowing through them as they kept their guns pointed at the sphinx. “You’re not my mom! You’re just some monster that was made in my weakness!”

“Attack it!” Futaba continued to shout; anger now audible in her voice. “Don’t let up!”

“Pummel it!” Joker shouted, as the Thieves put their firearms away, switching into a formation for an All-Out Attack, flying about as they smashed into Wakaba.

As they came out of the attack, Mona clicked his tongue, as if he didn’t believe it wasn’t over.

“How much more can it take?” he asked, looking up at the UFO.

“Just keep hitting it!” Joker shouted, following it up with a call of ‘Debilitate!’ along with the familiar three spheres embedding themselves into Wakaba.

“Ah, fine!” Mona shouted as Zorro appeared behind him.

“Garula!” he shouted, the outlaw appearing behind him, swinging his sword as the blades of wind sliced into the sphinx, with more cuts appearing on its body.

“Panther!” Queen shouted, revving Johanna’s engine as she looked towards her partner.

“I got you,” she shouted back, as a woman in a black dress came forward, the familiar men having been replaced with bouncing dog heads.

“Nuclear Burn!” the two shouted, as the two dogs spit a ball of fire that merged into one, followed shortly after by a bluish ball of energy.

As the fireball made contact with the sphinx, it burned away some of the fur and left the skin exposed to the incoming nuclear attack, bursting into black ooze as Wakaba screamed in pain.

“It’s still down!” Joker shouted as Wakaba seemed unable to get up, the pained cries of the sphinx urging him on to continue the attack. “Eigaon!”

As the ball of darkness slammed into her face, Wakaba fell back a bit, before flapping her wings again, taking to the air as black blood started to trickle down from her forehead.

“You just had to say that,” Mona groaned, making Joker grimace a bit as he looked at the circling sphinx.

“It’s not over!” Futaba shouted as a second bolt appeared in the ballista. “Hold out until it can be fired again!”

With a frustrated grunt, Mona called Zorro out again, not expecting anything to happen if he tried to hit Wakaba with a skill.

“Garula!” he shouted, as blades of wind shot from the edge of Zorro’s blade.

The blades of wind hit the target, to everyone’s surprise, spurring a sudden burst in morale.

“We can hit it!” Queen shouted as Panther’s lady in black showed itself again, the dogs howling in delight.

“Hecate! Agilao!”

The fireball charged towards Wakaba, smashing into her sides where the first ballista bolt had hit her. She screamed in pain again as the metal bolt started to heat up.

“Wait for the bolt to be exposed!” Joker shouted, with Queen launching a follow-up seconds after the shout, the ball of nuclear energy slamming into the bolt.

“ **GRAH!!!** ” Wakaba shouted, looking down at the Thieves in hatred.

“ **FUTABAAAAA!** ” she screamed, watching as the UFO continued to circle behind her. “ **YOU DID THIS! YOU SCREWED UP MY LIFE!!** ”

“ **ALL YOU DID WAS GET IN THE WAY OF MY RESEARCH! I NEVER SHOULD’VE HAD YOU AT ALL!!** ”

“Still trying?” Joker asked, followed with another Eigaon smashing into Wakaba’s side.

“ **NO! THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT!** ” she screamed, looking down at Joker as she looked to wind up again. “ **IF FUTABA WASN’T AROUND I-** ”

“That’s a lie!” Futaba interrupted, stopping the sphinx mid-air. “Mom told me herself! She said no matter what, she could keep working so hard because of me!”

“The one who decided that my existence was a burden on her is myself! No one else!”

“ **NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU STRUGGLE, YOU’LL NEVER ESCAPE ME!!** ” Wakaba screamed again, her glare fixed on the UFO. “YOU’LL BE TORMENTED BY YOUR PERSONAL GUILT FOREVER!!”

“Oh, shut up,” Joker said, as another Eigaon slammed into Wakaba’s side. “We’re taking her with us.”

“ **B-BUT THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!** ” the sphinx screamed, looking down at Joker with more unbridled rage than they had ever seen.

“No it’s not!” Futaba shouted, as even more energy poured into the Thieves. “With them, anything is possible!”

Looking down at the ballista, Futaba forcibly corrected the aim and height, and locked the bolt into place.

“Shoot it down!”

Not needing to hear the command twice, Skull pushed on the leaver, firing the bolt into the other side of the sphinx’s body, smashing into her.

With a cry of pain, Wakaba landed against the pyramid again, looking at the Thieves with disgust in her eyes.

“ **FUTABA, FUTABA, FUTABAAAAAA!!** ” she screamed, focusing her glare on Joker. “ **IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU SAY! FUTABA IS MY PROPERTY!** ”

“ **DEFYING ONE’S MOTHER IS DISGRACEFUL!** ”

“Again?” Joker asked, switching to his pistol as he felt a silent command run through him.

“We’re taking Futaba with us,” he said as the Thieves formed up for a Hold-Up.

“ **SHUT UP!** ” Wakaba shouted, looking down at Joker with rage in her eyes. “ **SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUP!** ”

“ **FUTABAAAAA! IF ONLY I NEVER BIRTHED YOU!!** ”

Balling her fists in her UFO, Futaba looked down. “No matter what you say to me, I will live!”

“Fire!”

Without hesitation, Joker pulled the trigger on his pistol, the bullet slamming into Wakaba’s head as it punched a hole.

Without any cries of pain, the sphinx fell over, its body slamming against the side of the pyramid before stopping at the base.

“Is, is it over?” Yusuke asked, running up with Skull as everyone looked down at the defeated sphinx.

“I would say so,” Ann answered as the body disappeared, dissolving into black mist like any other Shadow would upon being defeated.

“Oof.”

Turning around at the sound, the Thieves saw Futaba sitting behind them.

“Futaba!” Makoto shouted, leading everyone as they made their way to her.

“Damn, that was incredible!” Ryuji shouted, fist-pumping as he joined everyone.

Sitting there for a few moments, Futaba eventually got up, patting herself down.

“Whoa, what in the world?” she asked, looking down as a pair of goggles hid her eyes.

“Ooh, it’s skin-tight!” she said, running her hands down further as she felt herself up.

“That’s what you care about?” Morgana asked, looking up as Futaba seemed more absorbed in her bodysuit.

Said revelry stopped when a sudden glow of light pulled their attention away, making them all look at the source.

“Oh, what now,” Skull grunted, shotgun materializing in his hands.

“Mom?”

“What?” Ann asked, looking at what was making the light.

It was a woman who had the same head as the sphinx, though the eyes were noticeably less angry.

“Futaba,” she said, a small smile on her face as she looked at her. “Thank you for remembering me.”

“M-Mom,” Futaba cried, looking on silently. “I-I’m sorry that I was so selfish, I...” She started to take a few steps.

“Don’t come,” Wakaba said, startling everyone at the declaration. “You’re not supposed to be here, are you?”

“Bu-but, I finally got to see you again!” Futaba cried, voice cracking.

“Being selfish again?” Wakaba asked, almost in a joking manner.

“M-Mom. M-Mom, I, I love you.”

“I do too,” Wakaba answered, her smile still present. “Now, go. Be free.”

With one final smile, Wakaba faded away, sparkling as she rose into the air.

With a brief sigh, Futaba looked at the ground, before turning to face Ren.

“Oh right, Medjed,” she huffed, walking off.

“Where are you going?” Makoto asked, wondering what they were supposed to say.

“Home,” Futaba said, like it was the most obvious thing. “I know how to use the Nav now.”

“Uh, okay,” Makoto responded, watching as Futaba went down the stairs that they had come from.

“She left…” Ann said once she had left their line of sight.

And so did the pharaoh of the tomb leave, reborn to live again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thank you links:  
> https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13676133/1/Phantom-Memories  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/26003371/chapters/63223333#workskin


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